


Uncharted

by DiNovia, sgvirtualseason



Series: Supergirl Virtual Season [11]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Coma, F/F, Family Feels, Guns, Implied/Referenced Torture, Journalism, Lesbian Character, Medical Procedures, Team as Family, Terrorism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-21 02:38:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11934582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiNovia/pseuds/DiNovia, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgvirtualseason/pseuds/sgvirtualseason
Summary: With setbacks on all fronts, it’s time for everyone to regroup. Jeremiah escapes, but at what cost? Kara, Alex, Maggie, and Lucy deal with the aftermath of the failed raid. Lillian reaches out to Adam, and Cat turns to Kara for support. Months of searching finally brings Alex and Jeremiah together, but is it too late? And will Cat and Kara finally find a way to move forward?





	1. Act I

Bar time for our favorite ladies by @supergaysupercat. Please be lovely about it in the comments or try the [Tumblr ask](http://supergaysupercat.tumblr.com/ask).


	2. Act I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Free, but compromised in ways he doesn’t understand yet, Jeremiah considers his options. Cat becomes introspective after her dinner with Adam, while Adam receives an unexpected visit from Lillian. Kara, Alex, Maggie, and Lucy regroup and decompress at a local dive bar after the raid goes south. Maggie gets a call that changes everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another @xy0009 special! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))
> 
> We really couldn’t get the words up without our awesome editors, so love on them when you get a chance:  
>  catherinegrant ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/catherinegrant) | [tumblr](http://catherinegrant.tumblr.com/ask)), @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask))

**TEASER**

The wail of a distant police siren pressed Jeremiah Danvers deeper into the filthy alley’s shadows. He chuckled with gallows humor when he stepped in a puddle of unidentifiable liquid.

“What did they always say about calculated risks in grad school?” he muttered to himself, eyes darting from darkened doorway to darkened doorway as he picked his way through the garbage and broken asphalt. “Make sure you get the math right?”

He must have missed a decimal point somewhere along the way, what with his pounding headache and the way sweat rolled down his back.

Dammit!

He rubbed his wrist where the Cadmus bracelet had been. He’d disabled it before he’d escaped, not wanting to blow his arm off. Now he suspected there had been a fail safe for that as well. A little pharmaceutical surprise, triggered by sensors at the perimeter, probably. The liquid equivalent of “If I can’t have you, then no one can,” injected sub-dermally at the moment of freedom. Lillian loved her poisons and her complicated revenge plots.

Jeremiah’s wrist burned and itched, but the light in the alleyway was too dark for him to examine it. It didn’t matter. He knew what he would find.

He stumbled, and his shoulder hit the wall next to him hard. He tried to catch his breath, wondering where he could go to get help or if help would even do him any good. Lillian had tentacles everywhere. Her little farewell gift notwithstanding, she would want him back, if only to keep her ridiculous plan on schedule.

Alex, Kara, and Eliza were all out. Lillian would be watching them even more closely once she realized he was in the wind. M’gann might have been an option before that incident at her bar, but scuttlebutt from some of the guards was that the DEO had picked her up. It was better than Cadmus snatching her, certainly, but either scenario left her clientele without support. Jeremiah hated that she’d had been caught in the middle of all this, but she had to have known the risks. From what he’d heard from some of the prisoners he’d had dealings with, M’gann and her bar had been skirting a wire-thin line for a long time now.

If M’gann was no longer accessible, at least the bar itself was an option. It would provide cover for a few hours, so he could catch his breath and make a plan. Lillian wouldn’t be watching it anymore – the building was useless to her without M’gann and her clientele – and maybe he could scare up some food, something to keep the fuzziness around the edges of his brain away.

The bar wasn’t too far away and he made his way there ploddingly, trying to keep one step ahead of Lillian’s goons and her poison. Leave it to her to make it a drawn out affair, giving the victim plenty of time to tick over every terrible life choice they’d ever made.

When he finally arrived, it was in better shape than he’d anticipated. Other than some charred brick and the boarded up door, it looked like it should be open for business. A closer look at some of the burn marks, though, told him which one of Lillian’s pets was responsible.

“Scorcher.” That alien was bad news all around, and he’d cautioned Lillian more than once about using her to further Cadmus’s aims. Infernians were understandably hotheaded by nature, but Scorcher was even more so than most, no matter how “controlled” Lillian claimed her to be. He couldn’t say he was sorry to see Scorcher go, though he was worried for Alex and Kara both. The DEO may have bitten off more than they could chew there.

Little light shone through the spaces between the boards put up to secure the bar. Or what remained of it. It was quiet and smelled of lemon-scented cleaning fluid with a hint of char, a testament to the damage done by the Inferian. Intact furniture had been moved to a corner of the room for salvaging, though there wasn’t much of it, by the looks of things, and the floors had been swept and mopped. He’d expected to hear the crunch of broken glass beneath his boots.

The bar-top itself had been partially destroyed, but what remained was solid and hidden from most angles of view. As he gingerly lowered himself behind it, his right foot slipped out from under him and hit a heavy glass bottle, which promptly rolled a foot or so away. Jeremiah leaned forward and groped for it in the shadows.

He lifted the bottle into what little light he had and squinted at the label. “Whipped,” he said with a snort. “That’s apt,” he added, before twisting off the top and taking a generous swig. The gruesome, cloyingly-sweet concoction made him gag, but he choked it down, knowing he needed the sugar. Lucky for him, this particular brew had plenty of it to go around.

A couple of stomach-churning sips later, his brain felt a little sharper, and he tried to catalogue his symptoms. Increased heart rate, diaphoresis, lightheadedness, headache, brain-fog… No body pain, which was odd. So the poison wasn’t a nerve agent, at least. Small mercies. Whatever it was, it would likely get worse by degrees, which meant he might have time to get help – but where from?

The image of a weakened and disheveled Cat Grant came to mind and Jeremiah sat upright, the idea having more than a little merit. The few kindnesses he’d been able to offer her when she was a prisoner should be worth at least one for him now, right?

On second thought, maybe going to Cat was a bad idea. He wasn’t sure how much she’d remember after the memory wipe he’d subjected her to, and it would be unfair to put her at risk again, especially when Kara obviously cared about her.

“Cared,” he mused, remembering Cat’s rescue. Kara, dressed all in black, moving like a goddess of vengeance through the haze of smoke and flashing lights in the bunker. _Cared_ wasn’t quite the right word.

But if Cat was out, that left him back at square one. His girls were out, M’gann was out. Who was even left?

Jeremiah took another sip of the vile vodka and hissed as it went down. He lifted the bottle to press it against his forehead, the coolness of the glass soothing the heat licking at his skin. His relief was cut short when a hand spasm caused him to drop the bottle to the floor. It rolled, liquid sloshing out of it as it went, and Jeremiah scrambled after it, frantic to get it back before all the alcohol was gone.

Just as his hand grasped it, a beam of light cut through the darkness of the bar.

“Come on outta there,” called a voice – a woman’s voice – and the flashlight swung to the left.

_Shit. Shitshitshit._

Jeremiah froze in place and prayed whoever was out there either went the fuck away or kept that light away from him. The spasms in his hand were spreading up his arm now, an effect of the poison. Something that leached the calcium from his blood would cause spasms and, eventually, the breakdown of his own skeleton – a writhing, painful way to go.

“Arrik, is that you?” The woman swung her flashlight to the right, about ten feet from where Jeremiah huddled against the rubble of the bar. “We talked about this, man. It’s not safe for you here. And it’s not just the damage to the building. Everyone’s on edge after that whole Braden thing. There’s extra sweeps going on and a bunch of back and forth over alien rights and lemme tell you, not all of it is you guys’ favor, okay? What happens if it’s an anti-alien cop who finds you, huh?”

Jeremiah cocked his head, listening more intently now. Was this some elaborate ruse meant to lure him from his hiding place? Lillian loved convoluted schemes more than most, but this didn’t feel like her. For one thing, another of her bases had fallen and her husband, Sam Lane, had been in on the fight. Convincing some beat cop to wax Shakespearean in the dark wouldn’t be high on her list of priorities.

With another sweep of the flashlight beam, the beleaguered cop answered her own question. “I’ll tell you what happens. If they don’t kill you on the spot, they’ll put a bag over your head and toss you into the back of a truck. And trust me, you won’t like where the truck ends up, okay? Arrik?”

Jeremiah couldn’t believe his luck. A cop – a _good_ cop – who cared about aliens’ rights. Oh, he knew there had to be some, probably more than he would suspect. But a good cop who cared about alien rights might know another one, a _specific_ one. Even if she couldn’t help, it would be good to see her, just to know she was okay.

He put his hands in the air and tried to ignore the tremors working their way up both arms. His time was running out.

“Please don’t shoot,” he said, eyes slamming shut when the flashlight beam hit him square in the face. “I’m unarmed. I need help.”

“Who are you?” demanded the cop, her hand on her sidearm.

Jeremiah’s chest tightened. One wrong move on his part and it wouldn’t matter how good a cop this woman was; she’d shoot him, and this would all be for nothing. He didn’t have much choice, though, as the muscles in his shoulders and back writhed, screaming in pain.

“Maggie,” he ground out, shuddering as he doubled over.

He heard the scrape of the cop’s 9mm leaving its holster. “Don’t move!” she shouted. “Don’t you fucking move!”

Collapsing on his side, Jeremiah curled into a ball before crying out as another spasm wracked his body. “Maggie,” he repeated, gasping for air. “Call Maggie Sawyer. I need help.”

***

**ACT I**

Cat hurled her Kate Spade clutch – minus her cell phone – at the first available surface in the penthouse’s foyer and headed straight for the high-end bourbon. She tossed back the first tumbler as if it were water, then slammed it on the bar.

Pouring a second, she carted the refill and her phone to the balcony, needing to be outside in the night air. With so many emotions pressed up against her, the ride from the restaurant had been airless and claustrophobic.

“You shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up,” she admonished herself, shaking her head.

Adam’s call had come much sooner than expected, as had his offer of dinner out. The way they’d left things at CatCo the other day, she thought for sure their first meal together would be lunch at Noonan’s, snagged between meetings, their privacy sacrificed for the sake of expediency. Hope had bloomed in Cat’s chest like ink spilled across a blank canvas when he suggested dinner at Luques, known for its foie gras and artful devotion to the leisurely dining experience. She had convinced herself dinner alone with her eldest son was a second chance to make things right between them. She should have known better.

The evening had started out well enough. Stilted and awkward, yes, but there was familiarity there, too. Curiosity. Interest. An exchange of pleasantries which, though superficial, had given Cat no reason to suspect what had come next.

She’d expected Adam’s suspicion, of course. She had abandoned him in favor of her career. She knew – had known even when she’d done it – the consequences of her choices would one day come home to roost. Kara, with her ill-advised attempt to reach out to Adam in Cat’s name, hadn’t bridged the chasm between mother and son so much as called attention to it. The real work, most likely requiring the assistance of trained professionals, had yet to begin.

Cat _knew_ that, and yet…

What had begun as awkward but workable quickly devolved into little more than a barbed question and answer session. It felt more like Adam was searching for “gotcha” moments than understanding. Was he lashing out in jealousy? Over Carter, the son she’d kept? Over Kara, whose importance to her only grew each day? More than once, though, Adam’s questions had felt rehearsed, as if he’d memorized them from a list, and Cat sensed Lillian’s hand on that particular rudder. Was the job working for Lillian even real, or had it just been a lure? An offer Lillian knew Adam couldn’t refuse?

How long _was_ Lillian’s long game, anyway? And was the only purpose to slip Adam, like a knife, between Cat’s ribs?

While Cat wasn’t wrong about that possibility, Lillian rarely abided singularity in anything. She thought in vectors, angles, and battlefronts – plural. Cat had been thinking in reciprocities – a tit-for-tat, _you ruined my marriage so I’ll steal your son_ kind of retribution – but what if Adam was a pawn in something much, much bigger?

Cat wondered how she could free him, or whether freedom was something he even wanted. Adam was an adult, after all, and Cat had no right to question his choice of companions or to leverage influence in his affairs.

Head spinning, Cat finished her bourbon, though she knew it wouldn’t help. In fact, only one thing, one _person_ , had wormed her way through Cat’s securely-built walls so completely her mere presence had become a balm to troubled thoughts. Cat knew it the moment she’d woken up in that bereft little room in the DEO with her hand held tenderly in Kara’s.

The real victory over Donovan hadn’t been the man’s capture, but rather Cat’s realization that her mind was her own, unsullied by Lillian’s sticky fingers and homemade poisons. Kara’s support and her certainty of that fact long before Cat had accepted it for herself had been unwavering, and Cat craved both at the moment. She picked her phone off the railing, then immediately put it back down.

Irked by her vacillation, Cat picked it up again and texted Kara.

 **I need you** , she sent, and blanched only when she realized how those words might read to a hero who’d put herself between Cat and certain death twice in as many weeks. She hastily typed **Not urgent** a second later.

***

Alex scowled before checking her watch for the umpteenth time. “Where _is_ she?” she hissed, taking an angry swig of her beer and willing time to move faster.

“Relax, Danvers,” Maggie said, finishing her own drink and signaling the bartender for another round. “You saw the text. Lucy’ll be here as soon as she can.” She glanced over her shoulder at the murky, shadow-shrouded bar. “Maybe she got lost. After all, this place is kinda off the beaten track. How’d you come across it?”

Alex shrugged a little self-consciously. “Used to meet a CI here when I was still hunting Fort Rozz prisoners full-time. Before Kara… uh… made her big debut.”

Kara snorted. “Is that what we’re calling dumping a plane into the river and causing a million dollars worth of bridge damage now? My ‘debut’?”

“Hey,” Alex said, reaching across the table to cover one of Kara’s hands with her own. “You saved a lot of lives that night, Kara. And yes, I might have freaked out on you a little–”

“A little?” squeaked Kara, eyes wide and incredulous. Maggie laughed. “I thought you were going to make me put you back on the plane and crash it all over again.”

“Wait.” Maggie’s head whipped between them so fast even the bartender gave them a look. “You were _on_ that flight? Holy crap, you kept that quiet.”

“Yeah, Supergirl is sort of indirectly my fault,” Alex admitted. “But a lot has happened since then and I’m really glad she did.”

Maggie smirked. “You saying I make life worth living, Danvers?” she asked, her smirk edging into a pleased smile.

Alex’s began to sputter comically. “What? I didn’t–I never–”

Kara clapped both hands over her mouth. “If you could see your face,” she whispered, pointing at Alex.

“Like you’re any better?” quipped Alex, embarrassed. “You haven’t come down from cloud nine since Midvale, Kara. I recognize the after-effects of canoodling and I know you’ve been doing _at least_ that with Cat. So you can lay off on the pointing and laughing now.”

Kara sat bolt upright, cheeks reddening as a frown notched itself between her eyebrows. “I don’t canoodle and tell, Alex.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “‘Canoodling’? Really? Are you two secretly eighty-year-old Victorian spinsters or something?” She winked at Kara a second later and grinned. “Cheers, though, Sunny D,” she said, lifting her bourbon in a toast.

Kara shook her head vigorously. “But we didn’t–”

Maggie laughed again but when Alex didn’t join in, she fell quiet. “I’m sorry we didn’t find him,” she said, squeezing Alex’s shoulder.

“I was _sure_ he was there,” said Alex darkly. She picked at the cocktail napkin under her beer. “You saw the same stuff I did, the transfer logs and the tracking docs from Henshaw. He should have been there.”

“He should have; you’re right.” Maggie pressed a kiss to her temple. “We’ll keep looking.”

“How sure were you, Alex?” asked Kara. “Regular sure or Midvale Rockets sure?”

Alex had been named captain of her high school volleyball team her senior year, the only year the Midvale Rockets had ever won the regional tournament. Even from their first practice, she had felt it in her gut they would win – she was the only one who believed they could.

Alex’s eyes drilled into Kara’s. “Midvale Rockets sure.”

“Then maybe he was there but he got out before we saw him.” Kara looked at Maggie, her face darkening slightly. “Lillian made it out, with a little help from a grenade. Maybe the attack gave Jeremiah his chance.”

“You think so?” Alex asked, hope swelling in her chest.

Kara shrugged. “I mean, Maggie would know better than I would. But it’s possible, right?”

Maggie nodded. “More than possible. He and I talked about it once, but it was only a pipe dream. He said he was being watched.”

“If he’s free, why hasn’t he tried to make contact?” Alex demanded. Rescuing her father had been her one goal these past few months, and their failures were beginning to sap the patience she’d cobbled together for everyone else.

“Because he’s trying to protect the two of you,” Maggie reminded her. “Just because he made it outta there alive doesn’t mean he isn’t being watched. He knows better than to lead Cadmus right to you.”

Alex glared at her and Maggie bristled. “Look,” she said lowly, growling the words, “your dad and I didn’t do a lot of personal talk because of the dangers inherent, yeah? But trust me, he loves you right down to your _bones_ , Danvers. Not everybody gets that, so don’t go looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

“You’re right.” Alex reached out to tug Maggie closer again. There was so much she wanted to ask about Maggie’s life, but this search had gobbled up all her time and energy. “I’m sorry,” she said, lacing their fingers together, hoping her touch would be enough to melt the ice between them.

“What if it’s not so much who he would reach out to, but where he might go to hide?” Kara asked hesitantly.

“Like outside the city?” Maggie asked.

Kara cast a pointed look at Alex.

“What, you mean like _Mom_?”

“I took Cat there because it was safer,” reasoned Kara. “Jeremiah may be free, but he knows Cadmus is everywhere in National City. Maybe he’d go home? Midvale is out of the way, and Eliza isn’t really involved in any of this. It’s been a long time since he’s seen her, too, Alex, and she loves him _so much_.”

Alex sat back, stunned. She had been so focused on finding the father she’d lost that she’d completely forgotten he was also a husband. She’d ignored Kara’s pleas to tell Eliza more about the search, saying she didn’t want to get her hopes up, but the more honest reason? Alex would rather live in Cat’s imaginary yurt in the Himalayas for the rest of her natural life than face Eliza if she failed.

Maggie shook her head. “No,” she said, the finality in her voice absolute. “It doesn’t track. He’d be more worried about putting your mom in danger than the two of you, and for super good reasons.” The tone she used on the word _super_ made her meaning clear. “Luthor sees familial connection as weakness, remember? She leverages those relationships to force compliance. Jeremiah knows that better than most.”

“Sorry I’m late,” said Lucy Lane, breezing in as if she wasn’t a half hour overdue. She pushed into the booth next to Kara without preamble and signaled the bored-looking bartender for one of whatever Maggie was drinking. “Bourbon, right? That’ll work. So…” She looked slowly around the table. “What’d I miss?”

***

Adam swiped his cardkey in the lock so hard, it took three passes to get the door to his suite open. Damn these doors and their “soft close” hydraulics – he couldn’t even get a good slam in while he was at it. He tossed the key on a nondescript credenza and shrugged out of his suit jacket, detouring on his way to the suite’s generous bar to splash some cold water on his face. Glancing up into the mirror, he startled at the rage in his own eyes.

Lillian had warned him, hadn’t she?

Cat Grant had chosen accolades and the lure of a future empire over her own son. Not even she refuted that fact. Still, Adam had been hoping for some sort of explanation, for a reason that made sense to him. She was too young or she was frightened or the divorce had broken her. Grief over her own dead father, possibly, or the emotional wasteland imposed by her cold mother.

 _Something,_ he thought, his hand curling into a fist against the marble countertop. Anything would have been better than Cat’s stark, unsentimental admission.

_“I couldn’t make it work. I was failing you both.”_

Both. Meaning him _and_ CatCo.

He snatched up one of the Egyptian-cotton hand towels and scrubbed at the water dripping down his face. Anger twisted in his body, and he tried to rein it in, temper it with reason. He was an adult; he should be able to manage his emotions.

He should appreciate Cat’s honesty, at least. She hadn’t sugarcoated the truth for him, and that alone was an act of bravery in a world so fond of shifting shades of gray. Still, the rejection was a tough hurdle to overcome, one made even tougher by Lillian’s harsh reminders.

Cat had sent money for his care, but the birthday cards had dwindled and then stopped altogether, hadn’t they? Had she sent flowers when he’d had his appendix out? A present for his graduation?

Did she know what his degree was in or where he hoped to be in ten years? Had she ever once said she was proud of him?

And when that Pollyanna assistant of hers had broken things off with him, had Cat intervened on his behalf? Had she attempted to comfort him at all? Had she even bothered to fire the girl?

Why did Adam have even the slightest bit of curiosity about Cat Grant when she obviously had none about him?

That was the question Adam couldn’t answer.

Maybe it was insanity in its classic definition. Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, he was drawn to Cat in ways he couldn’t account for, though it had little to do with her charisma.

Was it all so as nauseatingly cliché as Lillian’s whispered guess of “mommy issues”?

Tossing the towel at the mirror, he headed to the suite’s bar, in desperate need of a drink.

He turned on the light in the sitting room and reared back in shock at the sight of Lillian Luthor sitting at the head of the diminutive conference table in the corner.

“So… how was dinner?” she asked, chin propped on the back of her interlaced hands, as cool and unflappable as always.

“Seriously? You broke into my hotel room to ask me how my dinner with Cat went?”

Lillian tsk-tsked as she rose, crossing in front of Adam to reach the bar. She poured two fingers of amber liquid into a tumbler and handed it to him. “Technically, it’s my hotel room,” she reminded him, smirking. “My office in DC booked it for me… for whatever needs I might have.”

She held Adam’s gaze for a second too long. “Tell me,” she said, returning to the bar to pour a drink for herself, “was dinner with Cat as heartwarming as ‘Little Man Tate,’ or was it more ‘Ordinary People’?”

Adam scoffed and walked past Lillian into the living area. He pulled at his tie to loosen it and dropped unceremoniously onto the couch.

“It was infuriating. She admitted everything, agreed with every accusation I made… She chose her career over her son and didn’t even deny it. Just said she couldn’t make it work.”

“But?” probed Lillian, laying a supportive hand on his arm.

Adam gripped the glass until his knuckles turned white. “But there was no good reason for giving me up! I kept waiting for her to say why she’d done it, for something I could understand.” The muscles in his jaw tightened as he relived the rejection over and over again. “It never came.”

“We’re never promised good reasons,” said Lillian, her voice pitched somewhere between cynical resignation and shrugging sorrow.

Adam eyed her suspiciously. “What?”

“Cat chose her career because falling short there wasn’t an outcome she could live with, not even if it was what was best for you. It’s a reason, whether you find it to be a good one or not.”

“Are you defending her now?” he asked, jerking away from her hold.

“I’m being realistic,” she told him. “Cat told you her truth, but it doesn’t have to be yours. I take it she still hasn’t offered you a job at CatCo?” Lillian looked at him curiously. “I thought for sure she’d make a counter offer once you told her about the position on my cabinet.”

“She gave me an open-ended invitation, in case you weren’t what I was looking for.” Adam stared into his empty glass. “I turned her down.”

“Did you?” Lillian asked, raising a single eyebrow. She reached out again, this time encircling his wrist with her long fingers. “Maybe you should revisit that decision. An opportunity like this might not come again.”

That was the thing about Lillian, he remembered grudgingly. She only loved him for what he could do for her, not for who he was. He’d known that for a long time.

Still, it was better than nothing.

***

“What’d you _miss_?” snapped Alex, leveling murky brown eyes at Lucy. “Where have you been?”

“I lost track of time trading shitty parent stories with my new stepsister. There are a lot of them, as you might expect. Shitty stories, I mean. Not stepsisters.” Lucy shrugged. “I thought she should know what happened. Just in case, you know?”

Alex perked up. “You were with Lena? Did Lillian contact her? Does she know where she is?”

“No,” said Lucy, frowning. “She’s heard nothing, which apparently isn’t unusual. Lena said Lillian only calls her when she wants something or when she’s congratulating herself. I get the feeling Lena tries to avoid her whenever possible.” The bartender brought her bourbon to the table and she took a sip, savoring the bitterness as it went down. “I know the feeling.”

“Then the whole raid was a bust,” Alex muttered sourly, taking another swig of her beer and shaking her head. “Great.”

“No sign of Jeremiah at the bunker, then?” Lucy asked, and the others looked down at the scarred table-top, disheartened. _Shit._ She’d been hoping for at least something to go on.

“No,” spat Alex, “there wasn’t. But you’d know that if you’d come to help look for him instead of hightailing it to your stepsister’s place. She’s still a Luthor.” Brooding, she collapsed into the corner of the booth. “I mean, what do we really know about her? Other than she knows her way around a compiler and she has a nice ass.”

“Excuse you?” said Maggie, rearing up to challenge that assessment. Lucy put a hand on Maggie’s arm to stay her jealousy.

“We know that she saved your ass once upon a time, and she saved our collective asses when we couldn’t get into CatCo because Winn’s too good at his job,” she said coldly. “You and I have already been through this, Alex. Maybe we can’t trust her, but can you point to anything Lena’s done – anything about her _at all_ – that would tell us that for certain?”

This was a pointless fight. Alex’s anger was coming from fear, not hatred, and Lena wasn’t the cause. Lucy couldn’t imagine being so close to finding Jeremiah, only to have that hope ripped away yet again by circumstances beyond her control. But an Alex paralyzed by disappointment and self-loathing was the worst thing that could happen to their search.

“And the answer _‘Her ass’_ is off the table,” Lucy added. “She may look like sin in a skin-tight skirt, but that doesn’t prove anything.”

Kara was the first to break, stifling a sputtered giggle with both hands clapped over her mouth. Maggie followed soon after, and her snort made Alex look up, the expression on her face unreadable.

For a couple of seconds, Lucy worried Alex wouldn’t take the offered out. Then a sheepish smirk pulled at the corner of the Alex’s mouth.

“Point made,” she said. “I still think your assessment of Lena is more anatomical than analytical, though.”

Lucy raised a regal eyebrow, relieved her gamble had worked. “Looking is not the same as acting,” she said haughtily. “Besides, my interests lie… elsewhere, at the moment.”

“Aw, come on!” groused Maggie. “This is kind of a girl’s night out, isn’t it? Tell us who you’re eyeing. Or are you like the Spinster Danvers Sisters over here and you don’t ‘canoodle’ and tell either?”

Lucy blinked once and then turned to Kara, unable to control her laughter. “You used the word ‘canoodle’? Out loud?”

“She started it,” Kara mumbled, pointing at her sister from across the table.

“ _Alex_ started it?”

“Stow it, Lane,” Alex fired back. “Are you going to answer Maggie’s question? Or should I?” Alex’s wicked grin made it perfectly clear she knew exactly who had caught Lucy’s eye – and she wasn’t afraid to share the information.

“Vasquez,” Lucy said finally, and a reverent hush fell over the table.

“Mmm, nice choice,” said Maggie, tipping her glass at Lucy in salute.

“Yeah,” agreed Kara enthusiastically. “Susan is really…” She blushed and averted her eyes.

“Hey!” Lucy gave Kara a playful but ultimately ineffective shove. “You’re supposed to be mooning over somebody else, Kara Danvers, or have you forgotten about your little powerhouse in a pencil skirt? Stay in your own lane.”

“That’s what she said,” said Alex, waggling her eyebrows at Lucy.

Maggie groaned. “Gross, Danvers. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Nope,” said Alex, leaning closer to Maggie and giving her a peck on the cheek. “I kiss you with it.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “You’re both gross. Stop flaunting your inexplicably successful yet terrible pick-up lines.”

“You should try one out on Susan before you dismiss them,” said Kara primly.

“Oh, yeah? You using them on the Queen of All Media then?” countered Lucy.

Kara blanched and the rest of the table laughed.

“Yeah, Kara, tell us what gets Cat Grant all hot and bothered,” said Maggie.

“Or don’t,” added Alex, putting up both hands to stop whatever Kara might say. “Because ew.”

“Shhhhh!” Kara went pale, and her eyes darted around the bar to see if anyone was listening. “Keep your voice down, or _you_ can explain to Cat why her name’s splashed all over the tabloids tomorrow. And in answer to your question, it’s none of your business!”

“Uh huh,” said Maggie, winking knowingly at Lucy. “Notice she didn’t say she didn’t know.”

Just then, Kara’s phone buzzed twice on the table next to her, and Lucy peered over at the name on the screen.

“Speaking of Her Royal Highness,” she said, and this time she waggled her eyebrows. “What’s the matter, Kara? She need help with a zipper?”

Kara snatched her phone off the table and held it to her chest. “I mean this in the nicest possible way,” she said, glowering, “but shut up, Lucy.”

“Uh oh,” said Alex, struggling to keep from laughing. “Now you’ve done it. She’ll say ‘fudge’ or ‘heck’ next. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Kara ignored her sister and peeked at her phone. She tried to school her reaction to indifference, but failed miserably.

“I have to go,” she blurted, before bolting for the end of the bench like a freight train. Lucy bailed out of the booth before she got shoved out.

“The queen has beckoned,” she said, chuckling. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she called after her, fluttering her fingers at Kara in a sarcastic wave as she hurried out of the bar.

“That’s a short list, Major,” said Alex absently, watching Kara go.

“And you think you have a longer one? Prove it. List them.”

Maggie turned toward Alex, propping her cheek on one hand. “Yeah, Danvers. List ‘em off. I’m looking for ideas for our next date.” She winked, and Alex hid her blush behind her hands.

“How did we go from sniping stupidly at each other to this?” she whined.

All three women looked at each other and said the same word at the same time.

“Vasquez.”

As each of them contemplated the virtues of the much-revered Susan Vasquez, Maggie’s phone began to ring.

“Sawyer,” she barked after swiping the answer bar. She glanced up at Alex.

“Put it on speaker,” Alex mouthed, and Maggie did so, ratcheting down the volume so the people in the nearby booths couldn’t hear. The three of them leaned in.

 _“Detective, my name’s Trish Wagner,”_ said the voice on the other end. She sounded harried and her voice echoed slightly, like she was standing in a cave. _“Listen, you don’t know me – I transferred to the NCPD from up north about a month ago – but I hear you used to frequent a bar down here in the warehouse district. One that’s been boarded up recently. That true?”_

Maggie sat up a little straighter. “Why do you wanna know?”

_“It was on my patrol route tonight and… Look, I got a guy down here in a bad way. Seems to be in a lot of pain, like he’s coming off something heavy, but he keeps asking for you. Says you’re the only one who can help. Can you take him off my hands?”_

Maggie’s eyes went a little wide and she shook her head, reaching out to grip Alex’s arm on the table. “You must think I’m new at this. I know you patrol cops like to punt the 5150s so you don’t have to do the paperwork. Before I come all the way down there for nothing, how about you take a pic of my so-called friend and send it to me?” Maggie’s voice was light and sarcastic, but her hackles were clearly up.

 _“Fine,”_ snapped the cop. _“I’ll call you right back. With all due respect, ma’am, I’d really appreciate it if you’d pick up when I do. It’s creepy as fuck down here, and I don’t want this guy to die on me tonight.”_

“You have my word,” said Maggie solemnly.

Trish grunted before hanging up.

Maggie hovered over her phone until it buzzed a minute later, and a dim, grainy photograph popped up on her screen. Tightening her grip on Alex’s arm, Maggie nudged the phone toward her, eyes even wider than before.

Alex stared down at it, paralyzed with shock.

When Maggie’s phone rang a second later, she answered on the half-ring. “I’m heading to your location now,” she said before the woman could speak, dragging Alex out of the booth behind her. She jerked her head at Lucy, too, indicating she’d better keep up. “I’m bringing help. Stay with him, okay? Whatever happens, don’t you dare leave him alone. If you do, you’ll be on that patrol route until you die or you retire, whichever comes first. That goes for calling anyone else about this, too. Got it?”

 _“Got it,”_ said Trish, agreeing readily. _“Who is he anyway?”_

“Family,” she said, and then she disconnected the call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for hanging in there all season! We’re on the very final stretch now, as episode 10 leads into our finale.
> 
> To allow us all to catch our collective breath, we’ll be taking another 2-week hiatus and then posting the finale over 2 weeks right after that. Please feel free to catch up in between now and then, or go back and tell authors and artists about things you liked but didn’t get a chance before.  
> Here we go!


	3. Act II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tonight on Supergirl Virtual Season

A tender moment courtesy of @pinkrabbitpro. Let her know how much you appreciate her work in the comments or in her [Tumblr ask](http://pinkrabbitpro.tumblr.com/ask). 


	4. Act II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lillian suggests Adam rethink his plan to distance himself from Cat.  
> Maggie, Alex, and Lucy head to M’gann’s bar, but is it a trap?  
> Under the stars on Cat’s balcony, Kara makes a big decision, but Alex’s desperate phone call interrupts.  
> At the DEO, Kara puts more puzzle pieces together and discovers another threat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bringing the drama this week, another delight from @xy0009! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))
> 
> We really couldn’t get the words up without our awesome editors, so love on them when you get a chance:  
>  catherinegrant ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/catherinegrant) | [tumblr](http://catherinegrant.tumblr.com/ask)), @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask))

Adam looked warily at Lillian. “An opportunity to do what, exactly?”

Lillian eyed him thoughtfully, aware of his serviceable looks and how easy it would be to destroy Cat Grant by taking her abandoned son as a lover. But that scenario seemed too banal somehow, too “Desperate Housewives,” and she had bigger fish to fry.

Her CatCo plan had fizzled because she’d sent a bull in a china shop when what she needed was a mole. After all, who better to topple Cat’s media empire than the son she’d abandoned for all those years?

She had to be cautious here. Too eager and Adam would see through her; too hesitant and he would retreat. She had one shot at this. If she miscalculated, she ran the risk of pushing him right into Cat’s arms. She clenched her jaw in disgust. She’d lost yet another Cadmus base _and_ her pet scientist today. Losing Adam would be one blow too many.

As the suggestion that he revisit Cat’s offer lingered in the air, Lillian saw hope flare in Adam’s eyes, and she swallowed her triumph.

“Take your pick,” she said, crossing the room to the bar. She returned with the scotch, refilling his tumbler. “You’ll be able to watch Cat in her element, running the empire she chose over you. The empire, I might add, that promotes aliens over humans, putting our planet at risk.” She smiled at Adam, conspirator to conspirator, and sat beside him again, setting the decanter on the table in front of them. “I see now it was a mistake to send Donovan into that viper’s nest. She’s protected, you see. Supergirl is at her beck and call, as is that vapid bootlicker who turned you down. What I needed was you – Joseph returning from the desert, in all your technicolor glory.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing drastic,” she assured him. “We might be able to mount a more successful broadcast takeover with reconnaissance from you.” She shrugged half-heartedly, as if not quite taken with the idea.

“Or drive a wedge between Cat and that Kryptonian demon she keeps leashed at her side,” she offered instead. “If nothing else, you can usurp that little Pollyanna’s place as Cat’s right hand. What right does she have to that role, after all? It’s as if Kara Danvers and Supergirl are working together, taking up all the space in your mother’s life.”

Hurt and outrage flared once again in Adam’s eyes, and this time, Lillian noticed, he let it come.

“Is that all?” he asked her.

“I also need a replacement for the biomedical engineer that quit without notice today. Isn’t Kara’s little foster family infested with scientists?”

In fact, Lillian had agents on the way to intercept Jeremiah’s wife at this very moment, but the less Adam knew about that, the better.

Adam snorted. “How should I know? We didn’t quite reach that stage of the dating process before she dumped me.”

“Don’t tell me that mincing Kewpie-doll broke your heart?” she sneered. “How long did you date again?”

Adam ignored the question, finishing off his drink instead.

“Fine. Have it your own way,” Lillian said. “Still, do keep your ears open, yes? We’ll fall behind schedule before too long, and we wouldn’t want that.”

“No, of course not,” said Adam, his voice hollow. He walked to the bar and left his empty tumbler on the counter. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve had a long day and I have a lot to think about. I’d like to get some sleep.”

“Of course.” Lillian rose to retrieve her bag from the table. Without Mercy, her powers of persuasion only went so far. Hopefully the long, tedious game of Cat and Mouse she’d been playing with Adam all these years had left him more susceptible than most.

She turned when she reached the door. “However I may personally feel about Cat and what she’s done to me, let’s not forget about what she’s done to the rest of the world. Remember what I told you, how pervasive and insidious these creatures’ lies can be, how desperately they want to control humanity. By using CatCo as a platform for pro-alien sentiment, Cat has given them the means to achieving that control.”

Adam’s eyes flashed dangerously, and Lillian knew her arrow had hit its mark when his face contorted in the way it always did when his birth mother disappointed him. “There may still be time to save Carter,” she told him, shoving the arrow in deeper. “ _That_ could be your legacy, Adam, saving the son Cat kept. What a hero you would be.”

Adam held open the suite’s door and stared past Lillian into the hallway. When he still didn’t respond, she leaned forward as if to kiss his cheek, but whispered in his ear instead.

“Carter’s counting on you,” she said, knowing the words would echo in Adam’s head long after he’d locked the door behind her.

***

Maggie was backing her Charger out of the alleyway before Lucy was all the way in the car.

“What the hell, Maggie? What was in that pic?”

Alex shoved Maggie’s phone at Lucy. She peered at it in the dark, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. All at once, the grainy, high-contrast image snapped into focus.

“Oh my god. He looks terrible,” said Lucy, glancing up at Alex, stricken. “No way this is drugs. Do you think he was shot in the escape?”

“Wagner would have said so,” said Maggie decisively. “Hell, she woulda called for a bus no matter who he’d asked for. Blood’s a liability in our business.”

“Poison, maybe,” countered Alex, bracing herself as Maggie took a turn practically on two wheels.

Lucy blanched. “Alex, you have to call Kara–”

“No!” Alex shot back, with a glare that matched Kara’s heat-vision in intensity if not in temperature. “Not until I’m sure. This could be fake. It could be a trap.”

“So we risk us instead,” Maggie grumbled.

“Fuck ‘em,” said Lucy, reaching for her bag, reassuring herself it – and her sidearm – were in the backseat beside her. “I mean, we’re all armed, aren’t we? We can handle whatever they’ve got.”

“I’m not dragging Kara into this unless I know it’s safe,” Alex told Maggie. “We’ll be fine until we make sure this isn’t a kryptonite-flavored ambush.”

_At least Alex has good backup,_ Lucy thought. Despite her doubts earlier, Maggie radiated ride-or-die determination, knuckles white on the steering wheel, features grim. She looked like she could bring the walls of Cadmus down by herself.

As they pulled up to M’gann’s old place, Maggie pointed out the single cop car. That at least tracked with the story Trish had given them. The three of them left the car together, raising their weapons almost in unison.

“There’s a joke in here somewhere about ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ but damned if I can find it,” muttered Lucy. She’d been in too many tight spots not to handle them with a bit of dark humor.

Maggie snorted, which at least covered the tightness in her voice a little. “As long as it’s the originals and not Cameron Diaz in her underwear, I’m with ya.”

Alex hushed the two of them and jerked her head at Maggie to take the lead. Maggie nodded, looking for the most likely entrance before heading off. Alex took up position on Maggie’s six, and Lucy brought up the rear, picking her way carefully through alleyway debris in her nine-hundred-dollar Ferragamo pumps. She wished she’d changed into something more comfortable after the raid earlier, but she’d wanted to impress Lena.

Lucy focused on the buildings and dark corners around her, alert to anything that might be amiss. The blue-white beam of the patrol cop’s maglight was the only light in the bar.

“Wagner?” Maggie called into the darkness. “That you?”

“Yeah. We’re back here, by the bar.”

Maggie was about to rush ahead when Alex pulled her back, corralling both her and Lucy into an impromptu huddle.

“I don’t want to take any chances here,” she whispered. “Maggie, you and I will go ahead, and Lucy will stay here in case something goes sideways and we need an extra pair of hands.”

Knowing better than to argue, Lucy took up position in a little nook hidden in the shadows by the door. She gave Alex the all-clear and watched as she and Maggie crept forward into the darkness, Lucy praying this wasn’t some elaborate ambush and Jeremiah was still alive.

***

Kara touched down on Cat’s balcony on silent feet, not wanting to startle her. It was a rare moment when she managed not to alert Cat to her presence immediately, and she took full advantage, tracing the curve of Cat’s elegant cheek with hungry blue eyes.

“You came,” said Cat softly, almost wistfully.

Kara smiled ruefully at being discovered so quickly. “You called,” she replied. That act alone had always been enough to bring Kara running. “Though I meant to be here sooner.”

Cat took a sip of her bourbon. “The usual delays?” she asked knowingly, and Kara chuckled.

“If you define ‘usual’ as an attempted convenience store robbery and _three_ muggings, then yes.” Kara took a step closer and mirrored Cat’s stance, looking out over the city lights. Their shoulders touched but only just, a common occurrence at these little tête-a-têtes. “Bad night?” she guessed, hoping she was wrong.

“Getting better,” said Cat, enigmatic as always. Surveying her kingdom in a black silk robe, Cat seemed serene and untroubled, but Kara heard the weight behind Cat’s words. She knew better than most how deep the still waters of Cat Grant ran.

Cat’s dinner with Adam must not have gone well.

Kara couldn’t believe he would come all the way across the country simply to taunt Cat. That level of cruelty didn’t match the young man who’d looked at her with such wounded eyes the night she rejected him.

At the time, Kara had rationalized the move as pragmatic. She’d put Adam’s safety over her need to be loved, to be normal. It was the right thing to do, and telling herself that distracted her from the real reason she’d broken things off with Adam. The truth was their relationship had been fatally flawed from the outset simply because Adam wasn’t what – or rather, _who_ – Kara wanted.

Kara stole a glance at Cat and blushed, remembering the stale air of a supply closet in Metropolis, heated kisses and wandering hands. Who she wanted – who she had always wanted – was right beside her.

“I can make it better still,” Kara said boldly, borrowing some of Supergirl’s steel to keep her voice from faltering.

Cat raised a pale, delicate eyebrow in response, but the stutter of her heart rate spiking belied her calm veneer.

“You think so?” she asked, her gaze still cast out over the city below them.

Kara was suddenly hyperaware of everything around her. The scent of the sea on the breeze, how the blood rushing in her ears drowned out every other sound, the heat of Cat’s body warming her skin.

“I know so.” Kara pulled Cat into a scalding kiss, heart thrumming inside her, electrified by her boldness, shocked by her need.

Cat melted into Kara’s embrace and parted her lips. She moaned, and Kara swallowed that moan with one of her own, deepening the kiss, every featherlight caress, every delicate brush of skin becoming liquid fire that sparked along her nerve endings. The molecules of Kara’s body transformed into galaxies that roared with life, taking up all the space inside her, making it impossible to breathe. Kara didn’t care.

When she finally pulled herself away, she pressed her forehead to Cat’s, cupping her face, fingers tangled in soft, silken curls. Desire pulsed in her veins like molten starlight and devoured the last of her restraint.

“Take me to bed,” she whispered.

***

When Lucy was settled in her hiding place by the door, Alex and Maggie advanced cautiously into the interior of the bar, until Alex heard Jeremiah cry out in pain.

All bets were off, then, and she sprinted ahead of Maggie, all fear of an ambush evaporating as she rushed to reach her father.

“Whoa,” said Trish when she saw both women with guns raised. “What the hell?”

Alex barreled past her as if she didn’t exist, throwing herself to the floor at Jeremiah’s side.

“Dad!”

“Alex?” Sweat rolled down Jeremiah’s face. His pupils were dilated and he seemed unable to focus, but he reached up to stroke Alex’s face, even as he shook his head. “No, no, no, no,” he cried, spasms tearing through his body. Gritting his teeth until his muscles finally released him, he looked up at Maggie.

“I called _you_!” he cried, gasping for breath. “It was supposed to be just you. It’s too dangerous! Please…”

“Dad, it’s okay,” Alex reassured him. “We’re working together. I’ve been trying to find you for months–”

“Get her out of here!” Jeremiah yelled, pushing Alex away, his face crumpling in despair. “Please, Maggie. I can’t let them have her.” He looked back at Alex, eyes wild. “I can’t let Lillian get her hands on you.” He shook his head over and over. “Your mother would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.”

Another spasm took him, and he screamed as his body bent backward, arms and back rigid and straining as muscle fibers contracted painfully throughout his torso. He fought through it, writhing in agony, legs kicking, but Alex could see the battle was lost before it had begun.

She heaved herself across his body to keep him from hurting himself, and Maggie grabbed Jeremiah’s legs. It could still be a trap, it could still be another Cadmus plan to destroy her family, but Alex had to risk it. She knew down to her bones Kara would want her to.

“Lucy!”

Lucy bolted into the room, but whatever questions she had died when she saw the scene before her.

“Call Kara,” Alex croaked out as he continued to thrash, acutely aware of the seconds ticking away, of her father’s suffering. “Please,” she pleaded again when Lucy hesitated. “I need my sister!”

***

Cat clutched at Kara’s cape to steady herself, the fabric deceptively delicate under her fingertips.

She’d held Kara like this once before, when she’d unintentionally talked her into launching herself into outer- _fucking_ -space on a ridiculous suicide mission. Cat had promised herself afterward that if she ever got her hands on Kara again, she wouldn’t be so quick to let her go.

“Are you tired?” Cat asked. They’d shared a bed several times before. For comfort mostly, when one of them was exhausted; physically or emotionally or both. On those nights, Kara’s arm, looped lightly around her waist, had staved off Cat’s ever-present nightmares. Whatever ease she provided Kara in return was a small favor in comparison.

If comfort was what Kara needed tonight, Cat would give it to her without hesitation… but she wanted so much more.

Kara crooked her index finger under Cat’s chin and tipped her head so their eyes would meet.

“Not in the slightest,” she said, her irises as indigo as the sea after a storm. Her voice was deep and clear and strong – the voice of a woman who knew what she wanted.

Cat shivered with desire, mortified that four simple words from her former assistant could turn her knees to water so easily. She slid her hands down Kara’s arms until she could take Kara’s hands in her own. Then she tugged, pulling Kara off the balcony and into her bedroom, hazel eyes smoldering in the moonlight.

“You will be,” Cat promised huskily.

Kara faltered almost imperceptibly, but Cat saw it all the same, her preening ego delighted by the power she held. She ached with wonder, too, awed by the depths of Kara’s caring, worried she couldn’t possibly deserve it.

Before Cat had the chance to reassure herself, though, an insistent ringing pierced the night, and Kara’s features shifted from sultry to startled. She pulled out of Cat’s hold and fumbled in her suit for her cell phone.

“It’s Lucy’s ringtone,” she said, frowning. “She knows I’m here,” she added, as if that would or could explain why Lucy would be calling at this time of night. Kara swiped the answer bar and put the phone on speaker so Cat could hear. “Lucy? What’s wrong?”

_“It’s Alex. Kara, I found Dad.”_

Kara turned back to Cat, bone-white with stupefaction. “What?”

Alex ignored her and kept talking. _“He’s dying, Kara. I just found him and we’re going to lose him again.”_ She sounded desperate. _“Please help me. We’re at M’gann’s.”_

Kara looked at Cat helplessly, eyes brimming with apologies.

“Go,” ordered Cat gently, lifting her hand to brush her fingers across Kara’s cheek. Didn’t she know she never had to explain? “Hurry.”

***

Kara paced in front of the medbay doors, arms crossed tightly over her chest. She couldn’t stand to watch what was going on in the medbay a minute more. Just hearing it was tearing at her heart.

What if she’d been too late? Even though he was still breathing when her boots had hit the DEO headquarters’ floor, Kara was terrified she’d have to watch Alex lose Jeremiah all over again. She felt so _powerless_.

Maggie charged through the double doors behind her. J’onn, his face a dour mask, followed.

“How is he?” asked Maggie, looking past Kara into the medbay, now a hive of intense, focused activity.

“And what the hell happened?” growled J’onn. “Lucy says you found him at M’gann’s. She’s with Agent Schott right now, reviewing the intel from the cyborg. He told me there was no trace of Jeremiah at the bunker.”

Kara shook her head. “There wasn’t. We searched and searched, but he wasn’t there.” She glanced back at the doctors and nurses swarming over Jeremiah. Alex was right in the center of it all, barking orders, her voice agitated but controlled. “He must have slipped out in the confusion, not realizing…” She put her hand against the glass window separating her from her family, frustrated tears filling her eyes. “We were right there.”

Maggie slipped behind her and put a steady hand on her shoulder. “We found him, Kara. And you got him here in time. I know you did.”

Kara wasn’t so sure. “His spasms are getting worse,” she said, heart sinking, “and they don’t know what’s causing them.” Her brow furrowed as she listened to the overlapping conversations going on in the trauma bay. “They’re trying to stabilize him.” Kara looked back at Maggie, distraught. “It’s not working.”

“Alex thinks he was poisoned.” Maggie took up watch next to Kara at the window. “Have they found an injection site of any kind?”

“No,” said Kara slowly, glancing at J’onn. “The only physical injury they found was an ulceration on his wrist.”

“His left wrist?” asked Maggie, tearing her eyes away from Alex in the other room.

Kara looked at her quizzically. “That’s what they said. Why?”

“Like where he would have worn his tracking bracelet?”

Kara’s eyes went wide. “You think the _bracelet_ poisoned him? Subcutaneously?”

Maggie put her hands on her hips. “Think about it. It’d be just like Luthor to sneak something else in, wouldn’t it? An insurance policy against someone escaping, someone she can’t afford to have found alive.” She shook her head darkly, and then jerked her chin at Jeremiah through the window. “Cadmus have had Jeremiah for a decade now. They watched him, yeah, but Luthor trusted him, too. Enough not to check on him while he deliberately diluted Cat’s Mercy doses. The shit he knows could take Cadmus down.”

J’onn nodded in agreement. “Lillian had to make sure an escape would be fatal for Jeremiah. He’s too much of a liability; she couldn’t take the risk.”

The wheels in Kara’s brain started spinning at lightspeed. Back doors, Trojan horses, the way Lillian covered her tracks… it was all starting to make sense now. The DEO would find and cut off one wriggling tentacle of Cadmus and another would grow to take its place. How?

Not because they were lucky. Women like Lillian Luthor didn’t believe in luck.

“Backups,” Kara whispered to herself.

“What?” asked Maggie, confused, and J’onn quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Backups,” she repeated, her excitement rising. “Lillian loves them – uses them everywhere.” Kara began to pace again, working through the connections she was seeing for the first time. “So, you’re Cadmus and your plan is to brainwash the Queen of All Media, to have her serve as the propaganda arm of your anti-alien black ops organization, but it fails because she gets rescued before you can finish the process. Fine. Okay. Then you try to discredit aliens directly by staging crimes perpetrated by rogue aliens and dirty cops you control, but that flops, too.

“You publish a decidedly anti-alien article by Cat Grant, but the forgery is discovered,” continued Kara, words pouring out of her like she’d opened a tap. “You decide to take matters into your own hands by broadcasting your message over hacked broadband feeds, but that’s not working fast enough, so you try to salvage what you can of the original plan by attempting to ‘activate’ Cat Grant as a sleeper agent once she’s back at CatCo’s helm, but then Supergirl and Cat’s twelve-year-old son get in the way of _that_.”

Kara spun to face Maggie and J’onn, both of them looking at her with varying degrees of skepticism. “Don’t you get it? Lillian has done the math, has looked at every angle. She knows all the ways something _could_ go wrong so that when something _does_ , she can react quickly, plugging the gaps left by Plan A with Plan B or C.”

“So she’s a Hydra,” said Maggie irritably. “Great. How does that help Alex save your father?”

“Because we have backups, too,” said J’onn, picking up the thread of Kara’s reasoning.

Kara nodded eagerly. “We’re just not thinking of them fast enough! Alex isn’t the only other biomedical engineer in our family, you know. Eliza has three advanced degrees, including one in chemical engineering.” She puffed out her chest proudly. “She’s a genius.”

Maggie went very, _very_ still.

“Kara,” she said gently but urgently.

Kara turned to her triumphantly, faltering when she saw Maggie’s horrified face. “What is it?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Kara, if Luthor is just pulling our strings like a spider in her web,” said Maggie slowly, “wouldn’t she have a backup for the scientist she couldn’t afford to lose? Maybe one with the same last name?”

For the second time in a hour, Kara Danvers turned as white as a sheet.

“Oh my god,” she said, and then she was gone in a flash, leaving two mangled doors and a floor littered with broken glass in her wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for hanging in there all season! We’re on the very final stretch now, as episode 10 leads into our finale.  
> To allow us all to catch our collective breath, we’ll be taking another 2-week hiatus and then posting the finale over 2 weeks right after that. Please feel free to catch up in between now and then, or go back and tell authors and artists about things you liked but didn’t get a chance before.   
> Here we go!


	5. Act III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tonight on Supergirl Virtual Season.

Bringing the action to life for tonight’s episode is @ofpensandcupcakes. Let her know how much you appreciate her work in the comments or in her [Tumblr ask](http://ofpensandcupcakes.tumblr.com/ask). 


	6. Act III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara makes it to Midvale in the nick of time. Jeremiah’s condition deteriorates, leaving Alex frantic and J’onn helpless until unexpected help arrives. Only time will tell if Alex’s Hail Mary pass will save Jeremiah. Kara updates Cat, and Eliza and Alex grow closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bringing the drama this week, another delight from @xy0009! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))
> 
> We really couldn’t get the words up without our awesome editors, so love on them when you get a chance:  
>  catherinegrant ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/catherinegrant) | [tumblr](http://catherinegrant.tumblr.com/ask)), @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask))

Eliza Danvers stood with her hip pressed against the kitchen counter of her rambling beach house, nose buried in one of the many journals that had been piling up around her office as she caught up on her reading. She absently dipped a tea bag into a mug of water long since cooled. Oversteeped and unconsumed were the fate of many a mug of tea for Eliza lately. She found them all over the house, dark and pungent, her intentions pure, but her follow-through lacking.

It was late but still warm out, the back of the house open to the ocean breezes. She enjoyed nights like these, mind occupied by science, the susurration of the waves a familiar but undemanding companion.

A sound outside – somewhere between a thud and a knock – made her look up from her journal. She frowned, more confused than frightened, and abandoned both article and mug, taking a step toward the porch door. The light from the house spilled out onto the deck, revealing nothing.

Eliza waited for a breath or two, then relaxed after hearing nothing else. She was about to return to her reading when there was a muffled thwack and a hissing sound, followed by a quiet, interrupted grunt.

Uneasiness bloomed in her chest. “Hello?” she called hesitantly, taking another step toward the door. “Is someone out there?”

The whisper of the tide coming in was her only answer.

Eliza peered out into the night, heart pounding. One heartbeat, then two, and then several things seemed to happen all at once. A gunshot, the sound of a branch breaking, a scream stopped almost as quickly as it had begun. Supergirl landed on the deck a second later, descending out of the darkness carrying four unconscious men, two in each hand.

“Kara! What on Earth–”

Kara dumped the men in a heap on the deck and then rushed into the house, sweeping Eliza into her arms for a brief hug. “There’s no time,” she told her hurriedly. She let Eliza go and zipped around the kitchen using her superspeed, darting back onto the deck with two garbage bags, twine, and duct tape in hand.

Kara stripped the men of everything but their clothing, piling their tactical gear and weapons to one side. She swiftly immobilized each of them, duct taping their mouths shut. Eliza watched as Kara bagged the weapons, night-vision goggles, head-set walkie-talkies, and other equipment into the two garbage bags. The number of guns she saw horrified her.

“What are you going to do with those?” she asked, alarmed. “Kara, who are these men?”

“Cadmus,” said Kara darkly as she bagged the last of the gear, twisting the ties around her left hand. “Lillian Luthor sent them for you. I’ll send a team to pick them up later, when you’re safe.” She took two long strides to Eliza’s side and put her arm around her tightly. “As for these,” she said, lifting the bags a little, “we’re taking them with us.”

Eliza instinctively put her arms around Kara’s neck, realizing she would soon be airborne. “Where are we going?”

“To the DEO.” Kara looked away, swallowing hard. “Alex found Jeremiah,” she added softly, and her voice quivered.

It was a good thing Kara had such a solid grip on her, because otherwise, Eliza would have dropped to the floor.

“Is he alive?” she asked, terrified of Kara’s answer.

“I hope so,” whispered Kara, a tear rolling down her cheek. “Hold on tight, okay?”

Eliza did as instructed, pressing her face into the fabric of Kara’s suit as they took off. She knew her tears were probably soaking through to Kara’s skin, but she couldn’t stop them.

***

Alex slammed her fists on her father’s gurney as yet another seizure gripped him. The convulsions weren’t as bone-shatteringly horrific now – thanks to massive doses of calcium and muscle relaxants – but every moment Jeremiah was in pain put another crack in Alex’s heart.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” she snarled at J’onn, frustrated and exhausted. He’d come into the trauma bay to tell her what Maggie had said about the bracelet, but knowing how the poison had been administered wasn’t helping them figure out what it was or how to stop it. “What are we missing?”

J’onn pulled up the latest labs on a tablet. “His hypocalcemia has improved,” he said, “but not enough. His serum tox screen came back negative, just like every other test.” Frustrated, he tossed the tablet aside. “You don’t even know what you’re looking for. How can you know what you’re missing?”

Alex swallowed around the burning knot of tears in her throat. She hated how helpless she felt in the face of Jeremiah’s suffering, unable to do anything but sedate him, hoping that, at least, would help with the pain.

This was her father. Her _father_.

The man who’d taught her how to ride a bike, who’d bandaged all her scraped knees.

The man who’d taken her to play Laser Tag the night of her ninth grade dance, somehow knowing she’d rather do that than spend the evening leaning against the gym’s closed-up bleachers in a dress that made her itch.

The man who’d volunteered to take Kara’s place at the DEO when she was just thirteen.

How could she fail him like this?

She looked down at her empty hands. She couldn’t give up. Not now. Not when she was so close to having her family whole again.

“There’s nothing else?” she asked finally, scrubbing at her face to wake herself up a little. “Nothing in his urine or his CBCs?”

“No,” said J’onn matter-of-factly. “We may not know what it is, but we know what it’s doing to him. Treating his symptoms instead of his labs might buy us some time until we can figure the rest out.”

Alex stiffened and then deflated. As tedious as starting over from the beginning might sound, she knew in her gut it was the right thing to do. “You’re right, let’s go through them.”

“He has progressive muscle contractions, elevated temperature, irregular heart rhythms, and respiratory distress,” said J’onn, picking up the tablet again. “What do those tell us?”

“Nothing, because they’re non-specific. The electrolyte imbalances show–”

“Forget the labs. Tell me what you see. Tell me what causes a healthy fifty-three-year-old man to look like that?”

“Have you considered strychnine poisoning?” asked a third voice from the doorway. Alex looked up, startled to see her mother shrugging into a lab coat.

“Mom!” She didn’t think she’d ever been so happy to see Eliza Danvers in her whole life. She skirted around the gurney and engulfed her in a relieved hug. “What are you doing here?” Alex should have called her, but she hadn’t wanted to shatter Eliza’s hopes.

“Your sister picked me up.” She reached a hand up to brush Alex’s hair out of her eyes. “And just in the nick of time, too,” she added, a faint frown settling into her features. “I don’t think the Cadmus strike team she neutralized was stopping by for tea.”

“The what?!”

“We’ll talk about it later,” said Eliza, pulling out of Alex’s arms and hurrying to Jeremiah’s side. She stared down in wonder but didn’t quite touch him, almost as if she expected him to disappear.

A spasm seized Jeremiah, and he arched his back high off the gurney, every muscle of his body contracting violently. He gritted his teeth and grunted through the pain, even though he was unconscious. Eliza jumped at the sound and pressed her hand to her throat. She looked at Alex when the contractions finally subsided and took a steadying breath.

“How can I help, Doctor?” she asked, and Alex closed her eyes, certain things had finally taken a turn for the better.

“J’onn and I are treating the electrolyte imbalances and mitigating the severity of his muscle contractions and his convulsions with a combination of diazepam and dantrolene.”

Eliza’s lips curved up in a pleased smile. “J’onn,” she said, reaching out to take his hand and squeezing it. “Thank you for helping.”

“It’s my privilege, Eliza,” he replied solemnly, his voice deep. “And the least I can do.”

Eliza released her grip and looked back at Alex. “Tell me about your father’s labwork,” she said, glancing around for the records.

Alex handed her one of the tablets. “The UA is only showing the products of Dad’s muscles breaking down, but no renal fluoride to indicate HF exposure and no strychnine.” At Eliza’s look of curiosity, she added, “It’s on our standard tox screen.”

“With Cadmus in play, though, that doesn’t necessarily mean neither poison is present,” Eliza reminded her. “They’ve been using your father’s skills as a biomedical engineer for years now. I assume they know their way around a chemistry set.”

“They’ve masked them somehow.” Alex wanted to kick herself. “That bitch added something to make them undetectable to routine tests, to cause confusion or slow treatment until it’s too late.”

“So what can we do?” asked J’onn. “We don’t know how long he’s been exposed, or what they might have added.”

“We put him in a coma and we dialyze him,” said Alex grimly, glancing up with guarded eyes as her mother came to her side. Had she guessed right, or had she missed something while trying not to drown in the swirling vortex of caffeine, exhaustion, and anguish in her head? Was this the part where she let her down again?

“And then we pray,” whispered Eliza, looping her arm around Alex and squeezing. She laid her head on her daughter’s shoulder, and Alex sagged gratefully into her side.

_Way ahead of you on that one, Mom,_ she thought, taking a deep breath before they got to work.

***

Kara bolted awake, disoriented and wondering why everything was buzzing, before finally realizing it was her cell phone. She’d tucked it into her suit for the round-trip to Midvale and had forgotten all about it. She fumbled with her cape until she freed the phone, heart soaring when she saw the messages on her screen.

**Call when you can. I don’t care what time.  
I hope everything is okay.**

“Cat,” she breathed, remembering how she’d left things the night before, and where they’d been headed when Alex’s call had interrupted them.

“What did you say, sweetheart?” asked Eliza from the head of Jeremiah’s bed. She was changing out one of the IV bags, dark circles under her eyes. The lights had been turned down, and Alex was sleeping beside her, perched awkwardly on the edge of Jeremiah’s bed. Her face was pressed into the crook of her own arm, and she had her free hand twisted into the topsheet over Jeremiah, holding him there as if she was afraid he would disappear again.

“How is he?” Kara asked, ignoring Eliza’s question and Cat both, for the moment.

Eliza let out a small sigh. “I think we’re through the worst of it. We still have a long way to go, but he has a chance now, thanks to Alex.”

“She never stopped looking for him, Eliza. There’s so much you don’t know, so much she didn’t want to tell you. How hard it’s been. All the dead ends, the near misses, the frustration.” She shook her head sadly. “I kept trying to get her to tell you–”

“That’s _your_ way, not hers, Kara. Alex was always independent, even as a baby. She did things her own way in her own time.” Eliza looked down at her sleeping daughter, a proud smile playing at her lips. “She was so stubborn – and she worried too much. I used to think she’d give herself an ulcer before she was ten.”

“Then you aren’t upset?” Things hadn’t always been this easy between Eliza and Alex, and Kara almost didn’t trust it. She’d lived through enough stilted, wine-soaked Thanksgivings to wonder if the two of them wouldn’t eventually slip back into their old ways. Maybe now that Alex had found Jeremiah, they could all find their way back to the happy family they had been before.

“Upset? When have I ever been upset with either of you girls?”

“Would you like my answer in alphabetical or chronological order?” Kara asked, looking askance at her.

“Besides,” said Eliza, ignoring Kara’s joke, “now that your father is back, there’s nothing left to tell.”

“Don’t be too sure about that.” Kara glanced out the medbay window at Maggie and Lucy, who were deep in conversation. Maggie noticed Kara looking at them and waved. Lucy gave Kara a tired salute and the two of them rose, heading toward the elevator. “I think she has a lot to tell you.”

“About that woman with Major Lane?” asked Eliza, following Kara’s gaze.

“That’s Maggie. She’s a cop, and she was the first solid lead we had on Jeremiah, the first confirmation we received that he was still alive. She met him when she was, um, undercover. She helped us find him.”

“Is that why she’s here now?”

Kara shook her head, but she couldn’t hide the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Not really, but that’s Alex’s story to tell. Not mine.”

Eliza grinned at her. “Ah,” she said, eyes twinkling with understanding. “And what about your story, Kara? Anything more to tell there?”

Heat flashed across Kara’s cheeks as she remembered her boldness with Cat last night. She stood abruptly and looked away from Eliza. “Nothing yet,” she said shyly, edging toward the medbay doors. “I’ll… um… I’ll let you know.”

She turned and fled the room before her foster mother could question her further. It wasn’t a lie, really. What was blossoming between her and Cat was just so frighteningly delicate. Maybe _too_ delicate for the words she wanted to say.

Kara knew she would have told Cat tonight, if they hadn’t been interrupted. She wouldn’t have been able to stop herself, lost in the ocean of Cat’s eyes as they made love for the first time. She was barely keeping herself from saying it now, and they’d only shared a handful of kisses.

Kara bit her lip and tried to push the daydreams out of her brain, but even her super-strength had its limitations. Fingers trembling, she scrolled through the contacts in her phone and pressed Cat’s name. Cat picked up practically before it rang.

_“Kara? Are you all right? Is Jer–”_ She stopped abruptly on the name. Cat hadn’t fully trusted her phone since the kidnapping, not even the new one Kara had gotten her. Kara wondered if that would ever change.

“I’m fine,” Kara assured her quietly. The relief she felt at hearing Cat’s voice probably wasn’t entirely sane, but a little madness could be a good thing, right? She blushed again, her mind taking her to entirely inappropriate places.

_“Thank god. And how is he?”_

“He’s… well, he’s alive.” Kara knew how terrible that must sound, but Cat’s instincts were usually laser accurate. If she thought they were being listened to, they probably were. Too much detail might give Cadmus more information than she wanted them to have. “We’ll know more in a few hours. It… it was a long night.”

_“Oh, Kara. I’m so sorry,”_ said Cat, her voice warm, sincere. _“Tell me what I can do.”_

“You’re doing it,” Kara told her . She’d begun to pace, hoping to burn off her extra energy, but as she passed the medbay windows, she saw Eliza gazing at her hopefully. Feeling caught and a little too exposed in this brightly-lit, state-of-the-art clandestine government facility in the middle of downtown National City, Kara tilted her head so her long hair curtained her from view. “I know this might sound silly, it’s only been a few hours, but… I miss you, Cat,” she whispered.

Cat inhaled audibly on the other end of the line. Kara held her breath, wondering if she’d said too much, if this would be the moment that sent Cat running.

Instead, a barely-audible sigh followed Cat’s gasp, and Kara realized she might not be the only one feeling profoundly relieved right now.

_“I miss you, too. I’ve been sitting on my hands to keep myself from demanding minute-by-minute updates. I finally gave in and texted you. Another hour of not knowing and I might have subjected myself to being carded by the DEO Boy Scout division again.”_

Kara heard Cat scoff lightly under her breath, and she chuckled. “Surely things weren’t as desperate as that?”

_“Desperate times, desperate measures,”_ said Cat, and Kara was sure she’d meant it to sound lighthearted and teasing, but Cat’s voice was husky and deep. Kara’s heart skittered in her chest, imagining that voice in her ear while she…

She spun on her heel, cape swirling behind her, and began pacing in tighter, more intense circles. “God,” she said, and the word came out more like a curse than a prayer. She curled her free hand into a fist, frustrated almost to the point of tears. “I want–”

_“Me, too, darling,”_ whispered Cat, and her voice mirrored the longing Kara felt. _“But your family needs you right now.”_

“You’re my family, too, Cat,” protested Kara, exasperated by everything – the distance between them, the constant interruptions, the feeling of standing at the edge of something wonderful, afraid to fall. “You told me that, you and Carter both, but I always knew. I’ve always–” The words she wanted to say stuck in Kara’s mouth like paste, trapped between what she needed and what she knew was right. This wasn’t the time, and that knowledge closed like a hand around her throat.

_“Tell me when I’m holding you in my arms,”_ said Cat, her words leaving no room for doubt. _“When everything is stable, when your family is whole again, come to me and tell me everything.”_

“Yes.” Kara inhaled sharply. “Yes, Cat. I will.”

_“I’ll be waiting,”_ Cat promised. _“Wear something…”_ Cat paused provocatively. _“…uncomplicated.”_ With a click, she was gone.

Kara clutched the phone to her chest, grinning as widely as her cheeks would allow. The only thing that kept her from pirouetting in pure elation was the probability she was being watched. A quick glance at the medbay windows showed both Alex and Eliza gazing out at her now, confirming her suspicions. Kara laughed, heading toward them with a definite spring in her step.

If either of them guessed why, well, she certainly wasn’t going to deny it.

***

Eliza Danvers glanced at the bag of calcium gluconate hanging over her husband’s right shoulder and adjusted the infusion rate down again, sighing with relief. Alex’s plan seemed to be working, and Eliza let herself believe – just for a moment – she might finally get Jeremiah back, whole and alive after all these years.

She leaned over him, studying every line of his face. She’d stared at him more than once throughout the night, wondering if it was all a dream, her dead husband rising from the ashes, kindling her heart anew. Memories she’d thought buried forever had come flooding back, repeating on an endless loop, like grainy home movies in her mind. The last time Jeremiah had said her name, the last time he’d held her in his arms, their last kiss – a hurried goodbye at the door the morning he’d left with Hank on that last mission.

Eliza blinked the images away and ruffled Jeremiah’s unkempt hair. It was longer than she remembered. She smiled down at him tenderly and watched the steady rise and fall of his chest. They’d intubated him before putting him into the coma, worried his ability to breathe on his own would be overwhelmed eventually.

Satisfied the ventilator was doing its job, Eliza relaxed. She stopped herself from caressing his unshaven cheek, knowing any stimulus could provoke additional seizures. Instead, she leaned close and whispered a single word into his ear.

Not _fight_ , because he was fighting, probably harder than he ever had in his life. Jeremiah had spent the night in a pitched battle against whatever insidious little concoction Cadmus had dosed him with, and Eliza was terrified of him succumbing to the exhaustion she knew he must be experiencing.

“ _Win,_ ” she told him, needing him to know she was there, rooting for him, pushing him to survive. Not just for her, but for their daughters, too.

Eliza reached across the gurney and gently caressed the back of Alex’s head. Alex had averted a near-death complication once already, when her father went into ventricular arrhythmia in reaction to the dialysis. Afterward – when she was sure he was safe – she finally collapsed, bitterly exhausted. She’d slumped over the edge of Jeremiah’s bed in a fitful and uncomfortable sleep, unwilling to leave his side, even for a second. Kara had draped her arm and cape around her sister protectively, keeping watch for her. As soon as Kara let her head drop onto Alex’s back, though, Eliza knew she was done for. Kara followed her sister into sleep moments later.

Eliza looked out at her youngest, awake now and pacing the waiting area. She had her phone pressed to her ear, a shy, lovesick smile curving her lips. As Kara spoke to her mysterious caller, the lines of worry around her eyes disappeared, replaced by a sweet blush across her cheeks. Eliza hoped that meant Cat was on the other end, and the two of them had stopped their hopelessly pointless charade of mutual disinterest.

Alex’s head stirred under Eliza’s hand and she pulled it away, watching as Alex sat up, scrubbing sleep from her eyes. She bolted to her feet, checking her father’s IVs and telemetry and EMG readouts, poring over the information as if cramming for a final.

Eliza handed Alex the tablet. “It’s working,” she assured her, pride warming her tone. “He’s holding his own, and his seizures are decreasing both in frequency and in intensity. We might be able to extubate him soon.”

“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep,” Alex muttered, embarrassed, running a hand through her hair.

“I don’t think you had much choice,” said Eliza, chuckling. “You or your sister. You both passed out like you used to on movie nights, using each other as a pillow.” Eliza let that memory fill her mind’s eye for a moment, watching Jeremiah drape the sleeping girls with the throw from the back of the couch, kissing each of their heads before turning out the light.

Alex looked up at the mention of Kara, eyes sweeping the medbay until they lighted on her in the other room. Eliza didn’t miss Alex’s nearly inaudible inhale when she noticed the now-vacant makeshift cot, which had been cobbled together out of two uncomfortable-looking chairs and a ridiculously small table.

“She went with Major Lane a few minutes ago,” Eliza said gently, nodding at the empty space. “Kara wouldn’t tell me much. Only that her name is Maggie, she’s a police officer who knows your father, and that you and she have become… close.”

“I…” Alex turned back to her, smiling shyly. The way it lightened Alex’s features delighted Eliza.

“We’re – ah – dating, I think,” said Alex quietly, looking at her feet.

“You think?” she asked, teasing. “You don’t know?”

Alex blushed, hotter than Kara had only moments ago.

“Who’s Kara talking to?” she asked, clearly changing the subject.

“With the way she’s blushing, it better be Cat.” Eliza grinned when Alex’s startled eyes found hers. “Please tell me they’ve stopped pretending they don’t love each other.”

“You know?” squeaked Alex, shocked.

Eliza’s laughter bubbled out of her before she could stop it. “Oh, honey, they stayed with me in Midvale, remember? I would have known even if Kara hadn’t all but admitted it to me when I caught her sneaking out of the guest bedroom that last morning.”

Alex’s eyes widened even more. “What the _what_ now?” she asked, her surprise rapidly turning into a look of disapproval.

“Nothing happened,” said Eliza, and she swatted Alex lightly on the shoulder. “You know Kara better than that.” She watched Kara curl around her phone protectively, saw the yearning in her smile. “They spent the entire time trying to convince themselves what they were feeling wasn’t real while Carter and I played along, pretending it wasn’t completely obvious.”

Alex chuckled. “They’ve been like that for a while now. I think Kara’s finally over the ‘she’ll get hurt because of me’ crap, so I don’t know what’s holding them up.” She looked at Kara thoughtfully, and asked, “Do you think it’s Cat? I mean, I was worried about the power differential too, at first, but, like you said, there’s no hiding how they feel. That shit can be seen from space.”

“You would know,” mocked Eliza gently, remembering her daughter’s completely reckless Hail Mary rescue of Kara during Myriad. “But remember, Cat’s had a lot of control taken from her recently, and she strikes me as the type of person who prides herself on her autonomy, who values her independence. It takes a lot of courage to open yourself up to someone else and make yourself vulnerable, especially when you’ve been hurt before.”

“I guess it was Kara who put the brakes on everything a few weeks ago, not Cat,” mused Alex. “I hope they figure out how to get past whatever it is that’s holding them back. It took me a while, but I think they’re good for each other. They make a hell of a team.”

Eliza smiled at Alex knowingly. “Kara said Maggie was your first solid lead on your father, that she helped you find him. Maybe Cat and Kara aren’t the only ones who make a hell of a team?”

Alex blushed again but didn’t rise to the bait, and Eliza let it go.

She thought she already knew the answer to that question, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for hanging in there all season! We’re on the very final stretch now, as episode 10 leads into our finale.
> 
> To allow us all to catch our collective breath, we’ll be taking another 2-week hiatus and then posting the finale over 2 weeks right after that. Please feel free to catch up in between now and then, or go back and tell authors and artists about things you liked but didn’t get a chance before. 
> 
> Here we go!


	7. Act IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Supergirl Virtual Season...

First of TWO pieces of art tonight, this one by @supergaysupercat. Give it some huge love in the comments or in that [Tumblr ask](http://supergaysupercat.tumblr.com/ask). Don’t forget to check for more art after reading the chapter! 


	8. Act IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremiah regains consciousness, but it’s not all good news.  
> Once Jeremiah’s condition is stable, Kara goes to Cat – with a big confession to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bringing the drama this week, another delight from @xy0009! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))
> 
> We really couldn’t get the words up without our awesome editors, so love on them when you get a chance:  
>  catherinegrant ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/catherinegrant) | [tumblr](http://catherinegrant.tumblr.com/ask)), @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask))

Jeremiah awoke at the bottom of a black sea, his lungs seemingly filled with a combination of wet concrete and agony. He clawed his way toward the surface and the light, but leaden limbs had him fighting for every inch. Sounds, round and wide and deep, like fragments of an echo, swam in his head. He tried to make sense of them, but every time he stopped to listen, he sank back into the sea and had to start all over again.

It was draining.

Jeremiah spent every iota of energy battling that cloying blackness, and just when he had resigned himself to drowning forever in this blind pain, he heard a single word, spoken by a voice he didn’t think could be real.

“Dad?”

Images crashed into Jeremiah, toppling him ass over teakettle like a newbie on his first surfboard. Snapshots of his daughter burned searingly bright, a ray of hope in the darkness.

Toddler Alex reaching up to him with two tiny grasping hands, demanding to be picked up.

Five-year-old Alex cheering as she finally caught her balance on her new two-wheeler after hours of trying in the August heat.

Nine-year-old Alex whispering with awe, slipping her hand into his as a bloom of crystal jellies passed by their boat one moonless night.

The images came in a swarm, cacophonous and buoyant, lifting Jeremiah until he finally burst into the light. He choked on something lodged in his throat, not understanding where he was or what was going on.

He tried to call for Alex but couldn’t, and he panicked . He lashed out in every direction, adrenaline flooding his system, giving him strength he didn’t know he had. Hands reached for him like tentacles and he fought them, too. Until…

“Dad!”

Jeremiah saw Alex framed in the light above him and stopped dead, gaping at her until her face made sense to him again. Tears of relief welled in his eyes and he tried to reach for her, but his arms wouldn’t listen anymore. He collapsed.

“Dad! It’s okay!” Unacknowledged tears ran down Alex’s cheeks as she pressed Jeremiah backward into the bed with gloved hands. “Let me take it out,” she said, reaching for his face. “I’ll take it out and you’ll be able to breathe, okay?”

He meant to nod, but only managed a strange, jolting lurch that drastically changed his sight-lines. Instead of Alex above him, he saw the silhouette of a woman – a blonde woman, face in shadow – upside down and behind him. A droplet of liquid splashed on his forehead, and he realized she was crying, too.

Alex pulled at the thing in his throat but Jeremiah ignored what she was doing, trying instead to see the woman. A feeling, like a storm, gathered inside him. Alex put a hand on his shoulder and ordered him to cough. As he tried to remember what a cough felt like and which muscles were needed to produce one, the woman behind him wrapped her arm around his shoulders and helped him sit up. The movement changed the angle of the light on her face, revealing her at last.

With one fluid motion, Alex yanked the ventilation tube out of Jeremiah’s trachea and he gagged violently, learning the hard way how to breathe on his own again.

“Eliza,” he gasped.

***

“I’m here,” whispered Eliza, pressing the back of his hand to her face. “I’m here, and you’re going to be just fine.” She kissed his knuckles and closed her eyes, holding onto him as if she would never let him go.

Alex handed the respiratory equipment to one of the waiting nurses and turned back to Jeremiah, barking orders as she examined him.

“I want q5 O₂ sats for the next hour,” she said, gripping her father’s head to steady it as she used her penlight to test his pupil reactivity. “And let’s draw labs – a full set, including the liver panel and electrolytes. Get ready to hang another bag of calcium–”

“Alex,” said Eliza, interrupting, but Alex ignored her.

“–and let’s add a CRP to those labs, too. I want to see what’s going on with his heart–”

“Alex,” croaked Jeremiah, his voice tattered and raw.

Alex stared at Jeremiah, frozen – no – _paralyzed_. Her father had been missing for so long, she almost didn’t know how to reconcile the fact of him sitting right in front of her.

Jeremiah lifted his arm from the bed and held it aloft, shaking from the effort.

For five long seconds, Alex didn’t move and she didn’t speak. Then she threw herself into his embrace, pressing her face into his neck.

“Daddy,” she whispered. Jeremiah cradled Alex to him and rested his temple on the top of her head. Eliza reached out to stroke her hair.

“Alex,” he said again, his voice stronger with every word he spoke. “My best girl. My hero. Thank you.” He held her a moment longer, then lifted Alex’s chin so he could look into her eyes. “Thank you for finding me. Thank you for never giving up.”

“I had help,” she said. “Kara–” Alex stopped abruptly and looked around for her sister. Jeremiah followed her gaze, finally seeing his youngest daughter hovering near the door, smiling through her tears.

“Kara,” said Jeremiah, and she crossed the distance that separated them in two long strides, taking Jeremiah’s outstretched hand into her own. He pulled, and Kara fell into Alex, laughing and hugging them both.

“Jeremiah,” she said, her voice laced with wonder. “Welcome back.” She shook her head, struggling to find the words, and she tightened her grip on his hand. “We worked so hard to find you.”

“I know, but so will Lillian,” he said, wrinkling his nose at her name and scowling. “She knows everything. I don’t know where she’s getting her information. I used to think it was Braden, but Maggie Sawyer solved that problem, I heard.”

“She’s here, actually,” announced Eliza, gesturing out the medbay window, a smile playing about her lips. “Downstairs.”

“When she gets back, I’d like to see her. I have to thank her. She put a lot on the line for me, and she didn’t even know me.”

“We should be thanking _you_ ,” said Kara earnestly. “For what you did for Cat.” She extracted herself from their family dog pile and stood up. “She can’t remember much, just a few images she doesn’t have any context for, but she says you were kind to her when you could be.”

“Don’t,” said Jeremiah, looking away from her. “You won’t thank me when you find out what I did. In fact, you should probably get some cuffs, put me in custody.”

Alex shook her head emphatically. “No. Whatever you did – whatever you _think_ you did – it wasn’t your fault. They kidnapped you, they forced you–”

Jeremiah looked up at Alex with haunted eyes. “I did it all anyway, Alex. Everything I promised myself I wouldn’t do. Everything they told me to.” He began to cry, frustrated angry tears. “I had a choice. I could have refused Lillian’s demands, could have let her kill me. Instead, I developed Mercy, to Lillian’s specifications. She… _We_ did such terrible things to people…”

“You _stayed alive_ ,” said Alex, her own tears welling in her eyes. She clutched her father’s arms and shook him lightly. “That’s the only thing that matters – the _only_ thing.”

Alex pulled Jeremiah into her arms and held onto him tightly, grinning through the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She had her father back. _She had her father back._

“Mom told me what you used to say, about how I was the strongest in the family,” she whispered. “Don’t you get it? If I’m the strongest of us all, who do you think I learned that from?”

***

Hours later, Kara stood outside the door to Cat’s penthouse, plucking at the hemmed edge of the white Oxford she wore over her Diesels. Cat had told her to wear something uncomplicated. Surely jeans and a white button-down met the criteria.

The problem was, she was no longer certain Cat would care what she was wearing, not after Kara told her what Jeremiah had done.

Kara knew all Cat could remember from her captivity was a man who’d shown her kindness in Hell, a man she’d later learned was Jeremiah Danvers. When Alex discovered he’d been diluting Cat’s Mercy doses, that he was likely responsible for the drug’s failure to corrupt Cat’s particular attachments to Kara and Supergirl both, Kara nearly wept with relief.

Finding out this afternoon Jeremiah was responsible for Cat’s memory loss and all the terror-filled moments she’d spent searching for those memories since…

It made Kara sick.

She didn’t blame him, of course. He thought he was protecting Cat, that Lillian would leave her alone after she had been rescued, because she couldn’t incriminate them. It was exactly the right move, and it had probably saved Cat’s life. Kara knew that.

But the damage it had done…

Kara had watched Cat’s self-assurance and her fearlessness evaporate, had stood by helplessly as Cat struggled with nightmares and the sense of not being right in her own mind, constantly afraid that what she didn’t know would not only come back to haunt her one day, but everyone else around her.

Watching Cat exile herself to a DEO cell because she was terrified of being a threat to Carter had broken Kara’s heart. She could only imagine how Cat had felt, living through it.

Jeremiah said he didn’t know whether the concoction he’d given Cat would ever wear off. It was another of Lillian’s pet projects he’d been working on, and a significant percentage of the solution had come from otherworldly sources. He thought Cat might begin to recover some of her memories on her own over the next few months, but he wasn’t certain.

Kara wanted to slink away right now and pretend none of this had ever happened, but Cat had trusted Kara when she couldn’t trust herself. Kara owed her the truth.

She rang the doorbell and waited, her stomach churning. When Cat finally opened the door, Kara’s heart soared for a few bright seconds before it fell again like a stone. Cat didn’t appear to notice.

“Right on time,” she said, giving Kara’s choice of clothing a leisurely once-over. “And appropriately dressed, too.” She leered at Kara and licked her bottom lip. “Lucky me.”

Cat’s gaze burned like the sun, and Kara shivered. Her own eyes flickered over Cat’s little black dress, from the keyhole cutout at the neckline that gave an enticing glimpse of porcelain skin, to the banded hem of the flared skirt that fell mid-thigh. Blood rushed to her cheeks.

“For me?” Cat asked, indicating the bouquet of wildflowers Kara clutched in her hand.

Kara had almost forgotten about them. Trembling, she offered them to Cat, and Cat’s fingers ghosted over hers as she took them. “They’re from a hillside near the house in Midvale,” Kara explained. “I didn’t want to be cliché.”

“And you stopped to get them on the way over?” teased Cat, lifting them to breathe in their fresh, grassy scent, her eyes never leaving Kara’s. “Lovely.” Kara wasn’t sure Cat meant the flowers or her. Either way, her stomach flipped.

Kara took a steadying breath. “May I come in?” she asked.

Cat’s eyes twinkled with barely-hidden mirth, her trademark smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth, and Kara sensed a sarcastic response was forthcoming.

“I wish you would,” she said instead, and that wasn’t much better. Cat’s velvety tone and a single raised eyebrow called attention to the double entendre. She turned and headed back into the penthouse. Kara followed, shutting the door behind her.

Once inside, she noticed there was a heartbeat missing from the house. “Where’s Carter? Don’t tell me he managed to get out of being grounded so soon?”

Cat opened a cupboard in the kitchen and took down a vase for the wildflowers. “He’s not _that_ lucky,” she said, smiling wickedly. “I sent him to his father’s with just his phone and a list of current events to research. We’ll discuss them when he gets back.” She paused and glanced at Kara, her mood shifting. “I wanted to be… available to you if you needed me. In case Jeremiah…” Cat pursed her lips and didn’t finish the thought.

Kara took a step toward Cat, wanting to touch her. She didn’t.

“Thank you,” she said instead, grimacing at the inadequacy of those words.

Cat inclined her head toward the decanter waiting on the kitchen island next to two empty glasses. “I know it doesn’t affect you like it does us mere humans, but may I offer you a glass of wine?”

Kara nodded, accepting the one Cat handed to her without comment, reminding herself to smile only at the last second. The wine went untasted.

Cat frowned. “Kara, is something wrong?” She reached out to put a hand on Kara’s forearm. “Is it Jeremiah? You said he was recovering–”

“He is,” Kara said, rushing to reassure her. “It was close – too close – but Alex saved him.” She smiled proudly. “She’s the real superhero in our family, you know. She always was. I’m just the flashy imported knock-off.”

Cat didn’t argue the point, though Kara could see she didn’t necessarily agree. “How did he escape?” she asked.

Kara looked out the plate glass windows overlooking National City, her sudden tears making the city’s glittering lights dance.

“Can we?” she asked, gesturing to the balcony doors.

“Of course, darling,” said Cat. She led them outside, urging Kara to sit on the plush couch before taking her own seat nearby. They were so close, their knees almost touched, and Cat laid her hand on Kara’s thigh, waiting for her to continue.

Kara fiddled with the fragile stem of the wine glass, then abandoned the glass on the table in front of her, nervous she might break it. “Alex, Maggie, and I, we found out which base Jeremiah was supposed to be at yesterday, so we, uh, we attacked it.”

Several emotions flickered across Cat’s features, the most prominent being annoyance. “And how much planning went into this little adventure?” she asked irritably.

“Not much,” admitted Kara, looking down at her lap. She told Cat everything that had happened over the last thirty-six hours – from losing their chance at capturing Lillian, to finding Jeremiah lying on the floor of M’gann’s bar, dying from some unknown poison made in one of Cadmus’s labs.

Cat’s eyes widened. She knew more than most about Lillian’s particular brand of pharmaceutically-enhanced evil. “How on Earth did he survive?” she asked, awed.

“He almost didn’t.” Kara’s throat burned with unshed tears. “Alex had to put him in a coma just to keep the seizures under control, and she and Eliza decided to dialyze him, hoping that would filter whatever it was out of his bloodstream. She says it’s a miracle it did.” Kara rolled her eyes. “Eliza said it was more Alex than miracle, but Alex hardly ever listens to her.”

“I’m with Eliza on this one,” said Cat, smiling conspiratorially. “Tell your sister to get over it.”

Instead of chuckling at Cat’s attempt to lighten the mood, Kara looked away, distracted.

“Kara?” Cat asked, worry edging into her voice. “What is it?”

“When he finally woke up this morning, and after he’d had a few minutes to adjust – I mean, being reunited with your family after a decade of being held captive _is_ a pretty big deal – I got to thank Jeremiah for what he’d done for you. I told him you couldn’t remember much of what happened, but seeing his picture made you think of kindness.” Kara swiped at the tears on her cheeks and looked away from Cat, not wanting to see the anger in Cat’s eyes when she told her the rest. “He told us we shouldn’t thank him, that Alex should arrest him instead.”

“What? But why–”

“He caused your memory loss,” blurted Kara. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she steeled herself for Cat’s reaction, whatever it would be. “He made the drug, and he gave it to you just before I found you. He thought it was the right thing to do, that Lillian wouldn’t send Braden and his people to kill you if you couldn’t incriminate her.” Kara’s hands curled into angry, helpless fists. “My foster father took your memories. He made you think you couldn’t trust your own mind, that you were a threat to Carter.” She reached out to touch Cat’s knee but thought better of it at the last moment, her hand dropping back into her lap. “I’m so _so_ sorry.”

Cat sat back, still and impassive. She turned her gaze inward, and Kara had seen this far off look enough over the past few months to know what it meant. Cat was searching her memories, picking at them for the thread that would unravel the missing ones. Kara knew by the frustration that rippled across Cat’s face a moment later that she’d been unsuccessful. Again.

Cat lifted hazel eyes to meet Kara’s, and she blinked when she came back to herself, tenderness flooding her gaze.

“You’re afraid knowing what Jeremiah did will change how I feel about you,” said Cat quietly. “Aren’t you?”

Kara shrugged weakly, fully expecting Cat to throw her out of her home and her life, unable to stomach the sight of her.

“Oh, darling.” Cat lifted her hand to cup Kara’s cheek. “He could have taken every memory, he could have wiped my mind _clean_ , and it wouldn’t change the way I feel about you.”

Kara stared at Cat, hardly daring to hope she might have been wrong.

“Haven’t you been paying attention?” Cat asked. “I love you.”

Kara gasped. The icy fear inside her melted in an instant and she fell forward, meeting Cat as she surged upward. She tenderly cupped Cat’s face in her hands and drew her in, pouring all her hope, her joy, and her adoration into this one breathtaking kiss, whimpering plaintively when Cat pulled away.

Cat pressed her forehead to Kara’s, taking her hands into her own. She clasped them tightly, then lifted one to thread her fingers through Kara’s unbound hair.

The words that had been on the tip of her tongue for so long blazed in Kara’s heart. She knew the roundness of them in her mouth, and their taste, sweet and smoky, like burnt sugar. She needed to say them, wanting to feel how they changed the air around her, but Cat stopped her, laying fingers across her still-tingling lips.

Cat pressed her hand against Kara’s breastbone underneath the stiff cotton of her Oxford shirt. She drifted forward until her mouth was next to Kara’s ear.

Kara’s heartbeat thundered in her chest, and she held her breath. She and Cat were going somewhere neither of them had ever been, an uncharted ocean of desire begging to be explored, and Kara _ached_ , balanced on a knife’s edge of anticipation.

“Tell me when…” Cat’s breath caught, and Kara leaned closer, brushing Cat’s cheek with her own. “Tell me when you’re inside me,” pleaded Cat, trembling. “Tell me when there’s nothing left between us but this,” she said, and she slid her fingers into Kara’s hair, tugging her down until their mouths met again in another kiss.

One that felt like coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for hanging in there all season! We’re on the very final stretch now, as episode 10 leads into our finale.  
> To allow us all to catch our collective breath, we’ll be taking another 2-week hiatus and then posting the finale over 2 weeks right after that. Please feel free to catch up in between now and then, or go back and tell authors and artists about things you liked but didn’t get a chance before.  
> Here we go!
> 
> ***CLICK THROUGH FOR MORE PINKRABBITPRO ART***


	9. Act IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat has something on her mind...

Some art that runs right through this chapter by @pinkrabbitpro. Let her know how much you appreciate her work in the comments or in her [Tumblr ask](http://pinkrabbitpro.tumblr.com/ask). 


	10. Act V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Supergirl Virtual Season  
  
---  
  
Gorgeous gifset courtesy of mitski ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mitski) | [tumblr](https://mitski.tumblr.com)). Be sure to let her know how much you love it!


	11. Act V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat and Kara spend the night exploring uncharted waters in their relationship.
> 
> In the morning, Adam makes a decision, Alex and Maggie reconnect after the chaos of finding Jeremiah, and Cat receives a text that both elates and worries her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bringing the drama this week, another delight from @xy0009! ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xy0009) | [tumblr](http://xy0009.tumblr.com))
> 
> We really couldn’t get the words up without our awesome editors, so love on them when you get a chance:  
>  catherinegrant ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/catherinegrant) | [tumblr](http://catherinegrant.tumblr.com/ask)), @spaceshipsarecool ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceshipsarecool) | [tumblr](http://spaceshipsarecool.tumblr.com/ask)), and @musetotheworld ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/musetotheworld) | [tumblr](http://musetotheworld.tumblr.com/ask))

Their only light came from the city below, blinding Kara to everything but the stars in Cat’s eyes. Her stomach quivered when she found the last catch on Cat’s dress, and she unhooked it, hands shaking. She pushed the slackened fabric off Cat’s swan-white shoulders, watching as it slipped to the floor in an ink-black puddle at their feet.

Kara stared brazenly, undone by the few wisps of black lace that Cat now wore. Even in the darkness, Kara could see the roses stitched into the design. She reached out to trace one, Cat’s eyes fluttering shut at her touch. Emboldened, Kara ran her fingertips along the lace edge of the bra where it met the swell of Cat’s left breast.

Cat moaned softly and her head fell back. Kara surged forward and pressed her mouth to Cat’s throat, kissing her way upward, hungry and insistent. She flowed against Cat, sliding her hands along Cat’s sides and around to her back, nimble fingers making quick work of the closures on Cat’s bra. Kara finally pulled back, slipping her fingers under the delicate straps of the bra, skimming them over Cat’s shoulders. It, too, dropped away, joining the dress on the floor.

Kara bit her lip, stunned by Cat’s body, its slopes and poignant hollows. She drank Cat in, analyzing the curve of her framed against the night sky, memorizing the shifting creams and bronzes of her skin. Her hands itched for her brushes, for the luxurious slick-slip feel of her oils, wanting to capture this Cat, unpolished and vulnerable, on her canvases. She was a masterpiece.

“Kara?”

Caught, Kara looked into Cat’s eyes sheepishly. “You know how beautiful you are.”

Cat lifted her hand to Kara’s cheek, eyes glimmering. “Not like this,” she said, shaking her head. She ran her thumb along Kara’s bottom lip. “You see _me_.”

Cat tugged lightly and Kara fell into her, dragging her mouth from Cat’s lips to the notch at the base of her throat. She moved lower still, kissing Cat’s skin in sips until she found a dusky nipple and took it into her mouth, sucking, pressing Cat to her carefully, not wanting to hurt her but not able to let her go.

“Oh, god,” husked Cat, voice ragged. She wound her fingers into Kara’s hair and pulled her closer. When Kara flattened the tip of her tongue and bestowed a series of rapid strokes to the underside of a now pebbled nipple, Cat’s knees buckled.

Kara swept Cat into her arms, kissing every inch of her while stumbling blindly toward the bed. They fell into it together, as Kara gently lowered Cat to the cool sheets beneath them.

She tossed her glasses over the side of the bed before returning to Cat’s mouth, nipping and tasting at the corner of it until Cat parted her lips, inviting her inside. Kara happily obliged, submerging herself in the kiss. She groaned and pulled herself away from Cat’s intoxicating mouth to kiss and suckle each of Cat’s nipples, nuzzling them with her cheeks and brushing her lips over them again and again. Breathless and needy, Cat arched her back and pushed herself against Kara, wanting more.

Deafened by the blood rushing in her ears, Kara slipped her hand between Cat’s thighs and parted them. Tiny bands of elastic held Cat’s lace thong in place and Kara reached for one, intending to snap it.

Cat must have realized what Kara was about to do and she stopped her, fingers twisting in the shirt Kara still wore, tugging at it until Kara looked up.

“Nothing between us,” said Cat, pushing Kara backward with surprising force until she was sitting on her heels in the middle of the bed. Kara reached for the buttons of her shirt only to have her hands swatted away.

“Mine,” growled Cat, reaching up to nip the spot beneath Kara’s ear while she unbuttoned the shirt herself. She pushed it off Kara’s shoulders roughly, tangling Kara up in the sleeves.

Kara hissed, throwing her head back.

Cat rose to her knees, grinning with predator-like glee when she saw the catch of Kara’s bra nestled between her breasts. Deft fingers made short work of it, and she leaned forward as the lacy cups fell away, taking one of Kara’s petal-pink nipples in her mouth. Her touch seared, and Kara, trapped in her own shirt, cursed under her breath. Cat, never one to overlook an opportunity, used this one to her best advantage, lavishing Kara’s breasts with an unrivaled attention to detail, seemingly content to spend the whole night discovering how sensitive they were.

“I want to taste you,” begged Kara. She grunted and flexed her biceps. Her shirt tore, releasing her, and Kara shucked herself out of it and her bra both.

Cat’s hands went to the button-fly of Kara’s jeans while Kara’s went to the thin elastic bands around Cat’s hips, slipping underneath them and sliding them downward over Cat’s long legs.

“Nothing between us,” she repeated, and she gently laid Cat down, skimming the last bit of clothing from Cat’s body with a sensual sweep of her hand. Then she shimmied out of her jeans and underwear until she was bare before Cat, quivering with both adrenaline and nervousness.

“Come here,” whispered Cat, opening her arms. Kara sank into them and groaned into their kiss when she felt Cat’s heat against her belly. She pulled away from Cat’s mouth and raised herself onto her arms, sliding her hips between Cat’s thighs experimentally, nostrils flaring at the sound of Cat’s breath catching at the back of her throat.

Kara curled herself downward and brushed her hair along Cat’s body. She poured it like honey over Cat’s shoulders and breasts, and in long, sweeping strokes over her belly, dipping to drop a kiss here and there, reveling in every sigh she caused, in every gasp, and in every sultry moan.

She pressed into her again and Cat’s hips rose to meet hers, thighs slick with need.

“Kara, please,” begged Cat. Kara touched Cat’s cheek reverently, leaning in to kiss her, dancing like a butterfly’s wings against her lips, until Cat, frustrated, held Kara’s head in strong hands and deepened the kiss.

“Now?” Kara whispered before pulling away, lips pressed to Cat’s ear. Cat nodded.

Kara held her breath, heart thudding in her chest, and she snaked her hand between their bodies, fingers seeking Cat’s sweet, slick heat. She cried out when she found it, sinking into Cat’s luminescent eyes, knowing now what it meant to dive.

“I am so in love with you,” whispered Kara, slipping inside her. “I always have been. I know I always will be.” She began to thrust, gently at first, and then with longer, deeper strokes. Cat struggled to keep her eyes open, to hold Kara’s gaze as she moved against her, with her, tangled up in her arms.

“I would put stars into the sky for you, Cat. I would do _anything_ for you.”

“You’re all I want,” breathed Cat, eyes gleaming in the half-light.

“You have me,” said Kara, groaning when Cat fluttered against her fingers. Knowing it wouldn’t be long, she moved down Cat’s body, painting her with kisses and scraping her teeth over the swell of Cat’s belly.

When she reached the downy curls at the apex of Cat’s thighs, she repositioned herself and nuzzled Cat’s sex, taking in the scent of her, nosing between drenched folds. She swept her tongue over them, moaning into Cat as the first taste of her flooded her mouth.

“You always have,” she murmured against her. Then she was lost, surrounded by Cat, filling her deeply as Cat rocked beneath her like the waves of the ocean, keening softly. A few heartbeats later, Cat arched hard against Kara, breath held, body rigid, until the waves crashed, finally, and she came, riding out her climax with a long, shuddering sigh.

“Kara,” she cried. “Oh, Kara, yes…”

***

Adam watched dawn break through the gauzy sheers over his hotel window, feeling as if he hadn’t slept at all. Nightmares often plagued him after visits with Lillian, waking him at all hours with a ruthless predictability. They were usually about Cat, of course.

Cat leaving him, Cat losing him, Cat dismissing him with a casual indifference that set his teeth on edge…

“Safe to say my abandonment issues are still alive and well,” he muttered bleakly, remembering the one that had awakened him this morning.

Cat, dressed head-to-toe in coal black robes, had ordered Supergirl to kill him, and then had watched, cackling, as the alien obeyed without question, wrapping strong hands around his throat and choking him. Adam had clawed at the hands fruitlessly, slowly realizing he was about to die. That his mother had ordered it. That her laughter would be the last thing he ever heard.

Adam had bolted awake, coughing and gagging. He hadn’t been able to sleep since.

He had grown used to the nightmares over the years. They didn’t come every time he spent time with Lillian, but often enough that he recognized the pattern. Lillian, after all, had never been particularly subtle about the many and varied ways she hated Cat Grant, and her vitriol had grown worse when Cat aligned herself with Supergirl.

Since meeting Cat as an adult, Adam found his assumptions about her didn’t quite fit with reality, and the dissonance confused him. She wasn’t the callously dismissive Type A harpy he’d been told to expect. Not even to Kara, whom he’d sought out first specifically, confident his mother’s assistant would be eager to dish dirt on what a terrible boss she was, and what a terrible person, too.

Instead, Kara had sung Cat’s praises, loudly and clearly, and seemingly without any agenda. He’d agreed to dinner with Cat on the basis of Kara’s assessment alone, and he’d found the woman to be defensive but honest, avoidant but warm, powerful but approachable. In short, utterly human.

Adam sometimes wondered what kind of relationship he might have had by now with Cat – if Kara’s rejection hadn’t sent him running for the hills.

Yet here he was again, darkening doorsteps in National City. He was self-aware enough to know Lillian’s invitation had been a convenient excuse for him to return. He was lying to himself, though, if he thought he could live here permanently without confronting his past.

Maybe Lillian was right. Maybe Cat Grant _was_ the modern age’s answer to the Wicked Witch of the West.

Adam smirked, thinking of Kara and how she followed Cat around, all puppy-dog eyes and undisguised hero worship.

“‘And your little dog, too,’” he quoted to himself.

But even if Cat turned out to be every bit the villain Lillian believed her to be, didn’t he owe it to himself to form his _own_ conclusions, based on his own experiences? Lillian hadn’t even been his stepmother, but she _had_ offered him some of the maternal attention he’d been craving. Even now he questioned how much it held up compared to the real thing.

When the clock on his bedside table clicked over to 7 a.m., he picked up his phone and typed out a quick text. He pressed send without rereading it, committed now to his plan. And if it helped Lillian a little, too, he wouldn’t feel bad about that.

He rolled away from the window and closed his eyes, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep.

***

The next morning, Alex found Maggie crashed out at an empty table, a cup of cold coffee standing guard at her elbow. It was getting to be a regular occurrence – Maggie zonked out in the breakroom while DEO agents tiptoed around her. Alex swore she’d overheard someone refer to it as “Maggie’s Place” recently.

 _We should put a cot in here for her,_ she thought, snickering under her breath. _Poor thing._

The thought of investing in a permanent sleeping arrangement for Maggie, even as a joke, pulled Alex up short. Apparently she could say they were just getting started, but her heart had other ideas.

 _Get a grip,_ she told herself, mortified. She crossed to the counter and snagged a paper cup from the top of the stack, pouring herself some coffee.

“Hey,” said a voice behind her, and Alex turned, smiling.

“You okay?” asked Maggie, pushing herself upright off the table and yawning. She stretched, moaning appreciatively. “Your dad all right?”

Alex crossed the room to sit with her, dropping into her chair with a thump. “He’s fine,” she said, taking a sip of the black sludge in her cup. “He’s asleep now. He and Mom both, actually.” She leaned back in her chair. “He wanted to see you, but Mom convinced him to wait until he’d gotten some real sleep.”

“It can wait,” said Maggie lightly, but then she gave Alex a look, half worry, half expectant. “And you?” she repeated. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” said Alex, but she didn’t sound convincing even to herself.

“You did it, Alex. You found him; you brought him home. After a decade of wondering what had happened to him, after months of searching, you really found him.” Maggie grinned. “How do you feel about that?”

If she were honest, Alex didn’t know how she felt. Relieved? Lost? Ecstatic? Purposeless? Maybe. Maybe all of them, but the one she felt most strongly was something she almost didn’t recognize: contentment. Plain old, garden-variety contentment.

Instead of trying to explain that, though, she said, “It feels great. It feels like I couldn’t have done it without you,” she added, lifting her hand to cup Maggie’s cheek. “It feels like I’ll be saying thank you for the rest of my life.”

Alex leaned forward and pressed her lips to Maggie’s in a tender, heartfelt kiss. Maggie hummed into it, giving her a smug look when they parted.

“That way?” she asked innocently, one eyebrow raised in challenge.

Alex smirked. “I can think of some others,” she said, leaning forward, wanting to taste Maggie again and again and again.

“Well, then,” murmured Maggie. “Let me show you how I plan to say ‘You’re welcome.’”

***

The sun crept over the horizon and shone into Cat’s bedroom, dusting the rumpled bedclothes and Kara’s sleeping features in light the color of a ripe peach. It burnished the natural gold of Kara’s long hair and warmed her skin. A sweet smile tugged at Cat’s lips as she traced a line from Kara’s temple to her chin with the lightest of touches.

She’d been doing it for hours, unwilling to take her eyes off Kara, who was spent and soundly asleep in her bed. Cat knew she should get up, at least to procure some coffee for the both of them, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop caressing Kara, even now, after a boundless night of lovemaking.

It was ridiculous, of course.

Cat Grant, Queen of All Media, didn’t do fluffy romance and declarations of endless love, and yet here she was, mooning at Kara with doe-eyes, tangled up with her skin to skin.

Kara slept on, unknowing, which was just as well.

 _No need to let her know how much power she has over me just yet,_ she chided herself. _She’ll figure it out soon enough._

Kara chose that moment to stir, breathing in sharply and tensing for a moment. After a few seconds, she relaxed, radiating contentment.

“Are you staring at me?” she asked behind closed eyes, tightening her arms around Cat. “While I sleep?”

“You’re not asleep,” noted Cat, one eyebrow lifting. “And I’m not staring; I’m preening. I took a bona fide superhero into my bed and thoroughly exhausted her. Surely you can forgive a little self-congratulatory revelling.”

Kara finally opened her eyes, and Cat swallowed carefully to hide her shock. “Sunny” Danvers was one thing, but the china blue eyes of a sated and besotted Kara Danvers were entirely another.

“You’re forgiven,” said Kara, and Cat felt somehow that was true, even though she didn’t deserve it.

Cat rolled her eyes at herself. Kara hadn’t meant for her comment to be taken seriously, but being loved by Kara Danvers felt freeing in ways Cat hadn’t expected, in ways that spoke of clean slates and new starts and redemption arcs, as ludicrously melodramatic as that sounded.

“Is granting absolution one of your superpowers now?” she asked cheekily. “Shall I ‘go and sin no more’?”

“I didn’t say that,” Kara pouted, before nuzzling and nibbling a particularly sensitive spot under Cat’s ear. “I like the way you sin,” she added, eyes half-lidded and lustful as she leaned in to kiss Cat.

Cat inhaled, startled by how quickly the mood had gone from playful to sensual. She surrendered herself to the moment, parting Kara’s lips to deepen their kiss. There’d be time for overthinking things later. Right now, all Cat wanted was to feel.

“Have I told you how much I love you?” murmured Kara against the hollow of her throat. Cat melted under her touch and sank back into the sheets, pulling Kara with her.

“You may have mentioned it once or twice,” breathed Cat. She rose to meet Kara’s caresses, basking in her fervent devotion. It was so unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, and she wanted so desperately to hold on to it and to Kara with every ounce of strength she had.

Kara nipped at Cat’s hip playfully. “I’m sure I’ll say it again,” she said with mock-seriousness.

Cat reached out to stroke Kara’s cheek, enchanted by the smile that resulted.

“I’m sure I won’t mind.” Cat held her gaze for a long moment, smiling indulgently. “But…” She glanced at their intimate positioning, and she bit her lip to stop herself from demanding Kara return to what she was – or rather, who – she was doing.

“But… back to work now?” guessed Kara, adding a sultry, suggestive “Chop chop?” as an afterthought.

Hearing her own words quoted back to her in such a provocative manner made Cat ache. “Oh, yes,” she sighed, slipping her fingers into Kara’s hair.

Kara chuckled knowingly, but just as she lowered her mouth to that luscious, tender spot above Cat’s hipbone, Cat’s phone beeped discreetly. Kara’s head popped up, a gentle frown drawing down her brows.

“That’s Adam’s chime,” she said unnecessarily. Cat recognized it, of course. “You should check it,” she added, sitting up and away from Cat. “It could be important.”

Kara Danvers happily settled between her thighs was pretty important, too, Cat groused.

She picked up her phone from the bedside table, not sure at first if she was reading Adam’s text correctly. Then she sat up.

“What does it say?”

Cat shook her head, surprised by the tears welling in her eyes.

“‘I’ve reconsidered your offer,’” she read, her voice shaking ever-so-slightly. “‘Can we talk about it this afternoon? I’ll bring lattes.’”

Kara wrapped her hand around Cat’s wrist and squeezed supportively. “Cat, that’s wonderful!”

Cat had to agree. It _was_ wonderful, and not something she’d expected. Frankly, she thought she had a better shot at becoming President of the United States than in convincing her estranged son to join her at CatCo.

She looked up at Kara, uncertain.

“Is it?” The complications of having her son on staff were legion, even when Adam’s brief fling with Kara was left out of the mix.

Kara nodded resolutely. “It’s a lot to think about, and you’ll have to work some things out with the Board, but you’ll manage.” She beamed, and Cat couldn’t help but smile back, reflecting Kara’s joy as easily and as unconsciously as breathing. “You can do anything.”

Cat shook her head a little at Kara’s absolute faith in her. “Not without you,” she said softly. “Unless…” However sensitive the situation was for her, it would be doubly so for Kara.

“Unless you don’t want to this time,” she said, somehow managing to hold Kara’s gaze despite her misgivings.

Kara looked confused at first, then embarrassed, ducking her head and blushing hotly. She reached up to twitch her long, bed-tousled curls out of her eyes. “I don’t know how he’ll feel about it – and I don’t want to hurt him – but it won’t be a problem for me.” She flashed Cat a shy, sideways grin. “I wasn’t lying when I said it’s always been you.”

Relieved, Cat darted forward for a kiss, swallowing Kara’s yelp of surprise. Finally tearing herself away, she glanced up at Kara through coquettish eyelashes.

“Your bias is showing.” She reached up to slide her thumb along Kara’s kiss-swollen bottom lip. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“You’d better not,” said Kara, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking. “Though I should be used to it by now.”

Cat arched a single eyebrow. “And how accustomed are you to sleeping alone on the couch?”

Kara blinked at Cat in horror. “Um… shouldn’t you answer Adam?” She pointed meekly at Cat’s phone.

“Mm,” muttered Cat, swiping her iPhone screen. “Well played.” She tapped out a quick reply and hit send. “I’ve agreed to an afternoon chat _not_ in my office. Surely Noonan’s can manage to provide me an appropriately scalding latte without the help of Supergirl for one day.”

Cat took one of Kara’s hands in her own. “Before that, though, I’d like to visit Jeremiah at the DEO. I have a lot to thank him for, and I’d like to do it in person.”

Kara’s face lit up. “Maybe seeing him will bring back some of the memories you lost.”

“I’d rather make new ones,” Cat growled, pushing Kara backward into their rumpled nest of bedclothes to straddle her. She braced herself, hands to either side of Kara’s head, and leaned down until their mouths were barely a centimeter apart. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Rao, yes,” whispered Kara, lifting her head to kiss Cat with every ounce of stubborn Kryptonian determination she possessed.

“Then pay attention, dear. I’m about to be very memorable indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for hanging in there all season! We’re on the very final stretch now, as episode 10 leads into our finale.
> 
> To allow us all to catch our collective breath, we’ll be taking another 2-week hiatus and then posting the finale over 2 weeks right after that. Please feel free to catch up in between now and then, or go back and tell authors and artists about things you liked but didn’t get a chance before.  
> Here we go!


	12. Act V (bonus)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ***NSFW***
> 
> Not kidding.
> 
> Supercat. NSFW. 
> 
> Enjoy the hell out of it.

***NSFW*** A rather intimate scene by @pinkrabbitpro. Let her know how much you appreciate her work in the comments or in her [Tumblr ask](http://pinkrabbitpro.tumblr.com/ask). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We thought we'd go into the 2 week hiatus with a (literal) bang. Enjoy! See you soon with the 2-part finale.


	13. IN TWO WEEKS ON SUPERGIRL VIRTUAL SEASON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sneak peek of our two-part finale!  
  
---  
  
Expert level teasing for the finale from [@reginalovesemma](https://tmblr.co/mX58FaTdFSq5I36HAj6LCTA) (who pulled this off despite everything going on in Texas right now, so extra love for that!)

Our two week hiatus has just begun, but we’ll be back with BURN: a two part finale, written by [@fictorium](https://tmblr.co/ml4YSJdtKYq5zBJzBjGPRDQ) and [@inspectorboxer](https://tmblr.co/mSnqOS8PZyhs8MHsHLR-14A).

## See you September 18th!

In the meantime, please catch up if you haven’t already. Don’t forget to comment as you go. The writers and artists have worked SO hard, learning new methods of editing, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, and just generally have done tons of work, on top of which they then had to get it all in like with what came before and after them.

It’s been a brilliant summer, and you’ve been an amazing audience. Thank you for every encouraging word and kudos!


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